In a utopian island space, women go in and out of the frame to discuss how women become subjects and how equal subjects interact. At the same time, female films made by female directors depict those female experiences and female aesthetics that male directors cannot capture.
1. The subject's gaze interaction and emotional fusion
How to stay away from male gaze and avoid being alienated as an object? Living in the 18th century, the two heroines have different choices. Marianne chose to be a Mulan-esque woman, inheriting her father's business as a painter, working like a man in the male-dominated world of painting and thus becoming independent. And Eroise chose to make himself invisible. He lived in a monastery since he was a child, and even after returning home, he used black veil to cover his face, so as to refuse to be watched.
And the director used the story to tell another choice, that is, women recover as a subject and have the right to actively gaze. And when the subjects are equal, the gaze is mutual, and the emotion is blended.
Marianne's first portrait of Eroise, although by a female artist, unknowingly internalized the male gaze. Marianne peeps at a part of Eroise's appearance and hides behind the reef to paint. Because it only pays attention to the appearance of the characters, and ignores the transmission of the overall temperament. The first painting looks dignified and rigid. It is a stereotype of a lady in a patriarchal society, as if it were a sequel to the unfinished portrait of the previous male painter. Eroise thought: "It is not fresh. , I can't feel the existence of vitality". It is not that women become viewers to achieve gender equality, but women are also required to have a sense of subjectivity and consciously view the world with women's viewpoints and aesthetics.
In the process of drawing the second portrait, Eroise changed from being seen to seeing. The two looked at each other, and eye contact nourished emotion. Eroise said, "When you look at the person in the picture, who am I looking at?". This is the main body declaration, but also the lovers' whispers. This paragraph uses a lot of close-up shots of two people to express the intimate relationship between the two, and uses symmetrical reverse shots to express the equality of the relationship. Because the second portrait is full of emotion, it captures Eroise's temperament and demeanor in detail, and it becomes the love work of the two, but it also becomes a parting work when it is completed. The portrait was shipped to Milan in a box as a dowry. After all, emotion did not overcome the conservative forces of the times.
When the relationship between the two was strong, Marianne drew a small portrait of herself as a souvenir for Eroise. The mirror image is used in the film to merge Marianne's head with Eroise's body, and Marianne draws this scene. There is no longer any separation between the two subjects and they become one, and the emotions have reached a real blending.
The finishing touch of the whole film is the portrait of the burning woman. Eroise stood in the vast wilderness, the bonfire burning the night and her skirt. She looked straight at Marianne, and all possible viewers. In this bonfire gathering temporarily escaping from social discipline, the imagery of fire is multiple, like Eroise's life force burning recklessly, connecting with the lives of other women and the vast power of nature; just like Eloise's life force The fiery love for Marianne, the sparks of emotion and desire; the same as Eroise's scorching gaze, which burns to ashes the male gaze and gender prejudice cast on her. However, in the film, Eroise is looking directly, while the portrait of the burning woman in Marianne's collection is turned away from the screen, unable to see the eyes and expressions, which seems to remind the emotional ending of the tragedy and the fate of the characters.
When Marianne saw Errois again, she became a noblewoman of Milan's high society, and she no longer looked at Marianne. So all Marianne saw was the new portrait of Eroise, and the distant figure in the theater. She lives in ladylike norms and ends up being the one in the box.
2. Utopia without the system of social power
The film is not just a women's film, but an expression of equality and love in a broader sense. In the process of painting the portrait, the director created a utopian space without gender and class inequality. The young lady and the painter are cooking dinner and setting the tableware, while the maid is embroidering; the three of them read "Metamorphosis" together late at night and talk about literature; the maid prepares hot water and hot stones for the painter who suffers from dysmenorrhea; the painter and the young lady help the maid have an abortion together... ...The painter, the lady, the maid, the simple and delicate three-person relationship, they live together and care for each other, so harmonious, there is no estrangement and no hatred, which pinned the director's expectations on the idealized relationship between human beings.
Moreover, without being repressed, people's life experience can be brought into full play, and life feelings can be fully expressed, which is no longer an unspeakable taboo behind the power structure. The film shows women's experiences that are usually not told, such as dysmenorrhea, abortion, etc., which have been silently endured by generations of women. The director shows these invisible life experiences into the lens with a gentle and compassionate attitude, enriching the dimension of human experience and human emotion. The picture of the maid having an abortion shows her painful expression with a soothing lens. In the same picture, the midwife's child babbles and strokes the maid's face. The contrast between the birth and death is moving.
The director visualizes Utopia with a female aesthetic, and the style of the picture is so delicate, soothing, subtle and profound. The story takes place on an isolated island in Brittany. The scene is arranged in a painting style with a very contemporary flavor. The interior scenes are like oil paintings, using scattered light without obvious light sources, and Rembrandt is used in the indoor night scenes. Type light effect, with black color blocks to contrast facial astigmatism. Outdoor scenes are like Impressionist paintings, depicting cliffs, waves and fields by the sea with gorgeous light, shadow and color, and inlaying figures in the landscape with panoramic and distant views.
However, such a utopia could only exist temporarily in 18th-century Europe, and the absent social power structure would eventually return. Drawing portraits because of arranged marriages, but also to add chips to arranged marriages. The real audience for the bust was Eroise's future husband. Although this male character never appeared, it was the unshakable absolute subject that sent his gaze.
3. The triple intertextuality of myth, plot and reality
The film uses the myth of Orpheus looking for his wife in the underworld to add another dimension to the plot in the closed space to form a rich meaning. In real life, the unforgettable love affair between director Simmaan and actress Hanel, who played Errois, has formed another layer of intertext outside the camera.
These three intertexts all use different plots to tell the motif that lovers who are in love cannot stay together. And the sigh of Orpheus, the portrait of the burning woman, and the film of the same name seem to be love elegiacs written in remembrance of the feelings of the past. As a result, the director Simaan, the female painter Marianne, and Orpheus are integrated into one, and exist as active agents of action. It is reflected in the fact that Orpheus had to take his wife out of the underworld after going through all kinds of dangers. The female artist painted four different portraits for his lover, and the director made a movie inspired by his old emotions. And the actress Hanel, the noble lady Eroise and Orpheus' wife Oridis are also integrated, and they seem to be passive recipients of love in the story, but the director uses an equal position to make them Have self-awareness.
For the question of why Orpheus turned back, everyone gave their own interpretation, reflecting the director's respect for each subject. Marianne believes that Orpheus chose to reminisce when he turned back, which indicates that the female painter will cherish love in an artistic way, and it seems that the director is poetically explaining the reason for breaking up with Hanel. And Errois believes that it was Oritice's call to turn him back, giving consciousness and action to Oritice, a female figure who never made a sound, and making the relationship interactive. When the painting is finished, Marianne will step out of the door and leave, and Eroise calls her back, and the two meet their eyes, forming a double image with the mythical farewell.
There is no end to this hatred, and after the end of the relationship, the longing is like a thread of gossamer, which also gives the film a sense of endless aftertaste. Marianne treasured the "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" with great care; in the new portrait Eroise held the book, and on the page with her fingers turned a small portrait of Marianne. These details not only evoke memories of the lovers, but also evoke emotional resonance from the audience.
4. Conclusion
This feminist film develops rich narratives and meanings both in and out of the frame and on-camera. Eroise was forced to be in the frame, out of the frame out of love, looking at each other affectionately with her lover, and time forced her into the frame. The unannounced love of the 18th century, as the waves of the seaside in Brittany flooded the screen and people's hearts. Telling women's stories does not stop at differentiated gender, but transcends gender to achieve commonality, liberate inequality in a broader sense, and call for love between equal subjects.
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