Movie Review: A Portrait of a Lady on Fire

“In solitude, I felt the liberty you spoke of. But I also felt your absence.”

A truly remarkable work of art, Céline Sciamma captures a beautiful sliver of love in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It is breathtaking in its simplistic dialogue and expressive nature. Moving the audience in ways most romances aspire to do, it is an unforgettable depiction of love that explores longing and passion. At the end, in perhaps one of my favorite shots of all time, Adèle Haenel moves the audience with a final silent and crushing farewell to her lover. 

One of my favorite aspects of this movie is the retelling of a popular Greek myth; Eurydice and Orpheus. In the story, Orpheus travels to the underworld in hopes of bringing back his dead wife Eurydice, where he makes a deal with Hades. He must not look back at her while climbing back up to the Overworld or Eurydice would be sent back down to rejoin Hades. Orpheus ultimately fails and looks back in his excitement, leading to the second death of his beloved. Along with a reading of the myth itself, the ideas are scattered throughout the movie and take a tangible form with the appearance of Héloïse in a wedding dress. Sciamma says in an interview, “It’s also part of the process of a feminist re-reading of mythology/myths. And typically the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is a myth that has been re-read by many feminists because it’s a myth that shows the male gaze as a killer gaze.” 

Throughout the film, the traditional story transforms into a version where power is given to both, where looking back is something that allows the necessary finality. The recognition that their relationship is doomed allows Marianne to make "not the lovers choice, but the poet's," and leave with a satisfaction of the time spent together rather than sorrow over the "death" of the love.