Character study, in a slow but sturdy message of feminine strength.
A painter is brought in to clandestinely capture a daughter for a portrait that apparently will be an 18th century version of a dating profile. There are catches, one being the daughter is not keen on her arranged destination-Milan marriage, the other is that a smoldering friendship between the painter and the daughter blooms into a clandestine love affair.
This period piece "gynocentric" film (phrase from the DVD extras) has a Virginia Slims vibe to me. The forbidden lesbian love and a side story involving barbaric quest for getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy seem to show that things have come a long way, well alas abortion rights may sadly spur on the feminist fight these days again. Could that trend have re-kindled this Portrait on Fire?
As with paintings, the frame can command attention. And here the story is framed as a looking backwards by the painter now as an art instructor sans lover. Not sure, but this might have undercut the heat of the affair. That and we are looking back even further at a taboo tale, that as mentioned just felt more historical than modern-day hysterical.
I should say I am a fan of Noemie Merlant. Something about her face expresses so much to me. Noemie seems to wind up in somewhat taboo and sensual films. Never mind the headline qualms about her self-directed, self-inspired more recent film. Honestly that just confirms she is likely an artist to watch.
That said, much of the conflict of the film relies upon her face-acting and that of her co-star Adele Haenel. The story and the spartan mansion where the daughter is kept, helped us viewers feel as confined as Heloise. Things more than a little claustrophobic for much of the film (beside a few scenes with the female choir around a bonfire) so we rely on longing, complex, vexed and perplexed looks. The artist's gaze. And the gaze back. The Female on Female Gaze.
Of course old flames still have sparks for any lovers, and that could be part of the story here. Instead I felt the director was hoping to re-tell or sell a feminine flex, the idea that Eurydice commanded Orpheus to look back.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for female/individual empowerment and think it may have existed hundreds of years ago on the cliffs of Brittany, as it does now in the side streets of Saudi Arabia.
As such I felt more smoke than fire from this film (it could also be the fated framing or something else - seems like others felt more chemistry between the two leads than I did).
I found myself distracted by the movie as a very peculiar take on dating at work. A strange mixture of the inescapable and the ill-conceived. Such love in both cases is born in the shadows, such love fuels upon its secretive nature almost as powerful the eventual sensual exploration.
I expected the film to engulf me the way such an affair would but it kept me arm's distance. The scenes with the maid and her understory were intriguing, a powerful scene in particular, then recaptured by the two entwined heroines for a painting. And the paintings in general (pretty cool that a modern director was sought out for the strokes herein, and her style of blurred portraits was included in the movie). Those and that female choir tune captured me more than the film itself.
A painter is brought in to clandestinely capture a daughter for a portrait that apparently will be an 18th century version of a dating profile. There are catches, one being the daughter is not keen on her arranged destination-Milan marriage, the other is that a smoldering friendship between the painter and the daughter blooms into a clandestine love affair.
This period piece "gynocentric" film (phrase from the DVD extras) has a Virginia Slims vibe to me. The forbidden lesbian love and a side story involving barbaric quest for getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy seem to show that things have come a long way, well alas abortion rights may sadly spur on the feminist fight these days again. Could that trend have re-kindled this Portrait on Fire?
As with paintings, the frame can command attention. And here the story is framed as a looking backwards by the painter now as an art instructor sans lover. Not sure, but this might have undercut the heat of the affair. That and we are looking back even further at a taboo tale, that as mentioned just felt more historical than modern-day hysterical.
I should say I am a fan of Noemie Merlant. Something about her face expresses so much to me. Noemie seems to wind up in somewhat taboo and sensual films. Never mind the headline qualms about her self-directed, self-inspired more recent film. Honestly that just confirms she is likely an artist to watch.
That said, much of the conflict of the film relies upon her face-acting and that of her co-star Adele Haenel. The story and the spartan mansion where the daughter is kept, helped us viewers feel as confined as Heloise. Things more than a little claustrophobic for much of the film (beside a few scenes with the female choir around a bonfire) so we rely on longing, complex, vexed and perplexed looks. The artist's gaze. And the gaze back. The Female on Female Gaze.
Of course old flames still have sparks for any lovers, and that could be part of the story here. Instead I felt the director was hoping to re-tell or sell a feminine flex, the idea that Eurydice commanded Orpheus to look back.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for female/individual empowerment and think it may have existed hundreds of years ago on the cliffs of Brittany, as it does now in the side streets of Saudi Arabia.
As such I felt more smoke than fire from this film (it could also be the fated framing or something else - seems like others felt more chemistry between the two leads than I did).
I found myself distracted by the movie as a very peculiar take on dating at work. A strange mixture of the inescapable and the ill-conceived. Such love in both cases is born in the shadows, such love fuels upon its secretive nature almost as powerful the eventual sensual exploration.
I expected the film to engulf me the way such an affair would but it kept me arm's distance. The scenes with the maid and her understory were intriguing, a powerful scene in particular, then recaptured by the two entwined heroines for a painting. And the paintings in general (pretty cool that a modern director was sought out for the strokes herein, and her style of blurred portraits was included in the movie). Those and that female choir tune captured me more than the film itself.