Many people have said that there are no men in this film, only women, this is the love of two women. Of course they're biologically female, that's for sure, but I'd say that in this film Marianne is male and Eloise is female. The first is the object of gaze. At the beginning of the film, we intervene from Ma’s point of view. We learned about Ai’s character from her subjective lens and narration of Ai. Of course, there is a reversal of gaze in the back. For example, in the flashback at the beginning, Ma is sitting on the model. In terms of position, it is described by the students, but it does not affect the relationship between the characters; secondly, their understanding of the story of Orpheus, Marianne automatically substitutes Orpheus (male), and Ai automatically substitutes Eurydice (female).
about fire
Candlelight is a metaphor for hope and desire. Candlelight is small and unstable; the opposite fire is a metaphor for the satisfaction of desire. The fire of destruction, the third fire, subverts the first two and is a metaphor for trauma. It appeared when she accidentally lit the "headless portrait", which not only showed her lack of confidence in her own abilities, but also showed that she hoped that the almost successful painting would be destroyed, so that the perfect painting could come out of her own hands; In the skirt that it burns Ai, it implies that reality is always in the flesh, something that will decay; in "Portrait of a Burning Woman", this is a ray of false fire, because it is false, it destroys The whole painting, this is the stain that art can never reach the other side.
happy about marian
When she first arrived, she changed her clothes and roasted the wet painting utensils naked by the fire. On the one hand, the clothes were wet, and on the other hand, she felt safe, or honest, in front of her art. Between her and the drawing board, as between the candle and the fire, she sees art above herself.
When Eloise went out alone and experienced freedom, she also experienced loneliness, so when she came back, she said to her "you are indispensable to me". And Marianne reflects on her work at night, reflecting her understanding of the saying: art is what is indispensable to her. She was well aware that the first painting was not perfect, but it was the highest degree of completion she would allow. Therefore, after she talked with Ai's mother, she went to compare the "headless portrait", thinking that as long as the head was drawn, the imitation below the head would be fine. When Marianne's painting was rejected, Eyre saved her by letting her stay. Here Ai is off the painting, with only her voice present, to represent the sacred moment of Marianne's deliverance. She will have the opportunity to complete a perfect painting.
A story about Orpheus
This shows their gender perspective. First of all, they automatically substitute characters of different genders to understand. Another factor in this substitution is that they both knew that it was Marianne (Orpheus) who got out and that I (Eurydice) was taken away, so in order to deal with their predicament, they To deal with this possibility of parting, and substitute.
But what really determines the gender difference is Ma's statement "she did not choose as a lover, but as a poet" and Ai's statement , "Maybe it's her who said it back." And Ai emphasized that this choice was because Orpheus couldn't help himself. Ma shows that there is art over love and pain (Eurydice's memory); E shows her acceptance of the possibility that she could not get his love; the former believes that there is something more sublime because there are other things , so the pain can be resolved, the latter believes in the truth that pain does not change, only consistent love can comfort, but it cannot be resolved, so choose to endure. In other words, the difference between men and women is the difference in dealing with pain.
This story became the final parting prophecy. Ai made sacrifices. She said to Ma "turn back", expressing that she completely cut off the thoughts of regret, hoping that this memory can be used as Ma's memory and benefit her artistic achievements. But Ma turned around and saw the ghostly human figure, her face was expressionless and her movements were stiff, completely different from the Ai Ma saw indoors. So Ma became Orpheus in a way, and she was no longer sure of the meaning of this turning back.
About the bonfire
The most exciting thing in this party is that Ai was burned by fire, and the two of them reached the pinnacle of eroticism in spirit. The first is that rhythmic chorus, which Marianne finds amusing and an art form. So she turned to Ei and saw Ei in pain and almost weeping, and I think she was thinking that this happy time was soon over. However, Ei saw that Ma was looking at her, and she knew what Ma was thinking, so she looked directly at Ma. In Ma's perspective, Ai walks from one side of the fire to the other, and then she is burned. But Ma didn't notice the fire at all, because Aye had become a perfect painting, and fire, like a dye, made her more beautiful. Ai didn't feel the pain either, because she endured the pain of being on fire at the moment, and also endured the pain of Ma misunderstanding her. She was so intoxicated in Ma's love that she forgot to distinguish between the two. And the voice of the chorus participates in this conspiracy, it gives a good appearance to all suffering, and then the voice ends, and the Egyptian falls to the ground.
About Ghost
The ghost wearing a white dowry appeared in white and gloomy at the same time. It was an image that could not be understood by Marianne. She could not be sure whether Ai was happy after marriage. What kind of smile or pain? Marianne couldn't know if she was willing to paint for Ai after marriage, just like she couldn't look directly at the maid who was in the flow of people, she chose not to see and paint that painful expression. The ghost finally manifests, and Ma sees the Aegis in the stairs as she bids farewell.
Happy about Eloise
Eloise pursues relationship equality with clumsy behavior. She didn't know if she could swim, and at the same time she knew she would get married. Therefore, after she knew that Marianne was a painter, she felt that compared with her, she had no right to choose and no right to know, both of which made her feel inferior and unequal. In order to reverse her passivity, she chose to go into the water to test whether she could swim, so that she could choose to swim or not to swim in the future. Second, she wanted to make up for her equality and freedom in this self-knowledge. This time, compared to Marianne's diving into the water in order to recover her painting equipment, in Marianne's view, it was blind and childish.
Women's enjoyment is outside the symbolic order. When Ma is talking about the beautiful things in Milan, when she bows her head and plays the piano, Ai's happiness lies in enjoying her concern, or, more simply, she enjoys the fact that Ma is not aware of it. , she kept the knowledge of Ma, this is the remaining time outside the pain. Her pleasure lies in the other's ignorance. The same situation is of course the same as when the bonfire is being burnt. It is also the same as the mirror placed on the lower body, according to the picture of Ma's face. And at the end they were in bed, Ma asked, when was the first time you wanted to kiss me? Ai replied, you tell me. Ma said, when you asked me if I knew the taste of love. Eve neither affirmed nor denied it. But Ai got the answer she wanted by asking rhetorically, and what Ma said meant that was the first time Ma wanted to kiss her.
About the painting "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" and the footage at the end
"Portrait of a Burning Woman" is Ma's most emotional work, and probably the most profound, but the meaning can be ambiguous, because who became Eurydice and who became the victim, because the portrait was not drawn, became an ambiguous thing. The meaning is uncertain, so it is not taken seriously by her. What she has exhibited are some superficial works, works with definite meaning, at least from a creative point of view. Ma still has the passion to see Ei again, because Ei has been leaving her traces in other paintings. But at the end of the concert, they didn't see eye contact. Maybe Ai didn't see her, which was a pity for her, but even if Ai saw her, Ai might not look at her directly. One is that she may not have forgiven her, and the other is that she can keep the illusion that Ma loves her in her memories. Therefore, this last suspense is positively related to the intensity of her ambivalence. The more she saw her, the more she was at the intersection of sadness and joy.
Ai's mother said, "It takes two people to talk and laugh." Ma dedicates the most important time of her life to art and enjoys freedom, but the loneliness can only be endured by one person. The most outstanding portrait has become a painful manifestation and can only be buried in the storage room. A wise and realistic choice, her seemingly happy life is shown to everyone through paintings, but instead, she needs to use music and paintings to recall the person who can no longer love her in reality.
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