I went
along to the Watershed this evening (yes, night time! it cost even old codgers
like me £8.50 - but tomorrow is its final day at the Watershed, so…) to see Céline
Sciamma’s film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”. The synopsis goes like this: In 18th century France a young painter, Marianne
(Noémie Merlant), is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse (Adèle
Haenel) without her knowing. Therefore, Marianne (posing as a walking
companion) must observe her model by day to paint her portrait at night. Gradually,
the two women become closer as they share Héloïse’s last moments of freedom
before the impending wedding…
It’s a very beautiful film –
beautifully-paced; beautifully-acted (I thought Haenel and Merlant were
perfectly cast); and with beautiful cinematography. Essentially, the film’s
about female desire, hidden love and art… and also, in the words of the
Watershed’s blurb, “the gaze”! The observer observed as it were.
There
were a couple of arty aspects that I found difficult to fully take on board,
namely: a) being able to remember someone’s features sufficiently (in the
pre-camera age, of course) in order to be able to paint a likeness is utterly
beyond me… and b) Marianne being able to sketch a likeness of a sleeping Héloïse when she’s actually sitting right next to her
head and even the best contortionist would be hard-pressed to come up with the
resulting ‘front on’ drawing, but…
I found the final scenes set in the art gallery (a reminder that,
despite it being an important time for women artists, art is very much male-dominated)
and in the opera house (Héloïse had earlier admitted never to have heard an
orchestra, so Marianne had given her a ‘taste’ by playing some Vivaldi on the
harpsichord) utterly enthralling.
I would very highly
recommend it.
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