A portrait of a lady on fire1/13/2024 ![]() The viewer comes to realize the fire not only lights Marianne’s way out of the dark literally, but also figuratively leads her out of the darkness of society’s hold as she starts to embrace her feelings and emotions towards Héloïse. Even Marianne’s rooms are dark, saved from complete indiscernibility by the fire that crackles in the room. ![]() When Marianne comes to stay at the house, the house is encased in utter darkness, save the flame that lights Marianne’s way. Any time Heloise stands in the room in her blue dress, there is a corporeal match in which Héloïse’s clothes match the color of the walls, which further serves to reinforce the fact that oppressive societal restraints envelop these women. Even when Marianne gets back from her walks on the beach, Marianne cannot escape the blue, as her rooms are painted a light shade of blue, an implication that societal repressiveness is all around the women, even in private spaces. No matter where Héloïse and Marianne walk, the ocean follows, giving the blue color a slightly ominous presence. In fact, the unique vibrance of the blue ocean and its far reaches serves to further symbolize the reach of the burdens that women had to bear during those times and how they could not run from it. Ordinarily, a viewer might have seen the ocean and not think too much about it, but through the dress-on-fire key scene, the viewer realizes that there is so much more to the ocean and its color than may be obvious. This hopelessness manifests in Marianne, and hints that the story we see unfold later on will not be an exultant one.Īdditionally, when Héloïse and Marianne first take a walk on the beach, the ocean often surrounds them in the frame of the camera, with its vibrant blue color cool in hue and highly saturated, giving it a constant presence throughout the many walks the women take together. The fact that the beginning scene in which Marianne is wearing the blue dress is set in the present, while the rest of the film in set in the past, indicates that the chains of society and the patriarchy remain undefeated – she is, put succinctly, blue. Marianne’s blue dress, which the viewer initially may not take to be significant, is clearly an intentional choice by the Sciamma and the costume designers, one that indicates the oppressive, melancholic nature of Marianne’s world. ![]() How does the viewer come to be able to fully appreciate all of the rich meaning in the portrait-like key scene?Īt the beginning of the film, Marianne is seen to be in an art studio, in which she sits at the front of the room in a blue dress, instructing her art students to observe her closely as they render her portrait on their canvases. The burning of the dress also appears to be a physical manifestation of the relationship between Marianne and Héloïse as the flame appears to destroy the oppressiveness that the blue color represents, it allows Marianne and Héloïse to finally take a step into their relationship with each other. We realize that the blue dress holds a world of meaning, as it symbolizes Héloïse’s despair about being married to a man she’s never met, and how oppressive the world is for women and their freedom. The scene is the subject of the portrait that we see in the first few minutes of the film. In this scene, as Héloïse’s blue dress burns, she stares across the field at Marianne as music swells around them and abruptly fades. The first key scene I discuss occurs near the end of the story, when Héloïse’s dress catches on fire at the bonfire that she attends with Marianne and Sophie. These layered symbols and images reveal to the audience the true reality of the film’s two lead characters, Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) and Marianne (Noémie Merlant). How are we to fully appreciate these powerful, key scenes in the film, and understand what they imply? This essay highlights these key scenes by detailing the color and lighting techniques Sciamma uses to build layers of hidden meaning. Throughout the film, there are a number of impactful cinematic scenes that may be viewed as, quite fittingly, portraits with intense depth and meaning in their own right. Deeply mesmerizing and arresting all at once, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, directed by Céline Sciamma, is a powerful film of queer love, the female gaze, and ultimately the representation of women and how they live together.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |