"When you look at the person in the painting, who am I looking at?"
"Portrait of a Burning Woman" is like a volcano. Under the quiet and beautiful image, the turbulent lava of emotion gradually churned below, and finally spewed out on the shallows of Brittany. The white wedding dress that I saw when I turned back suddenly was the final chapter of the love between the two of them, but it was not a swan song.
The flowers blooming on the cliffs are particularly eye-catching, as is the love between Marianne and Heloise. The isolated island sets a depressing background for the story. The more depressing environment is the lack of women's right to speak in the ubiquitous patriarchal society. So, the director deliberately dominated the female discourse (almost 100%) and left the male discourse absent, and because of this, our perception became pure. From the very beginning when Marianne's canvas fell into the water and none of the surrounding male characters communicated with her and offered to help her, to Eloise who had to marry a stranger she had never met, to the female painter who Female painters are not allowed to paint portraits of men and feel that "equality is a pleasant feeling", and finally to the fact that her paintings must be exhibited in the name of her father, all of which are always alluding to the background of the audience.
The mysterious handling of Eloise's appearance satiated the audience's appetite, and it was not until the 20-minute look back at the edge of the cliff that the camera stopped abruptly, and we saw its true face. From then on, their eyes met. Interestingly, the changes in the eyes of the two corresponded to the process of painting, and love also slowly flowed out in such a response.
The first sight is Marianne's pure physical observation of Eloise, yet her outbursts of affection are outlined on the canvas. Then they started a conversation, and Marianne finished painting her face and hands.
When the painter used the harpsichord to play the third movement of "Summer" for her, which he was not very familiar with, Eloise's eyes that had been watching Marian became gentle. For the first time, her face showed a long time. smile. The love—the spark that finally set fire to a prairie fire—came at last after nearly 40 minutes, as Marianne finished the final coloring of the first portrait. "But I also felt your absence." It was Eloise's first show of love, vaguely like a mist, and Marianne's eyes changed. But looking at this portrait from the same perspective as other male painters, Eloise's sadness and anger made her question her "lover", the angel who could have broken the traditional shackles with her. Marianne ruins the painting in a breakdown of quarrels and doubts. Even so, they were aware of something. From the second portrait, there is admiration when the eyes meet, because they both find themselves falling in love with each other unknowingly.
"You've already experienced love. What does love look like? What does it feel like?" Marianne didn't answer, leaving the video for the next hour to answer slowly. The director is really restrained when it comes to controlling emotional advancement. Interspersed with day and night, the ambiguous atmosphere of looking at each other and smiling after painting for a sleeping lover is interspersed with formal painting, but what remains unchanged is the gaze and observation of two pairs of eyes.
The emergence of the topic of Orfeo and Eurydice brings a philosophical discussion of love, and also ruthlessly hints at the ending of the love story of two happy women. In ancient Greek legends, Orfeo was in charge of music and poetry in the world. When his beloved wife Eurydice was bitten to death by a poisonous snake, Orfeo went to the underworld to save his wife. On the way, his grief and heart-piercing cry touched Hades. So, Hades agreed to bring his wife back to the world, but there was one condition. Orfeo couldn't look at his wife's face on the way back to the world. If she betrays her promise, Eurydice will stay in the underworld forever. But because of his devoted and mad love for her wife, he looked back at Eurydice and sent his lover back to the underworld forever. Unlike the maid who represents the world's opinion, Marianne believes that Orfeo's look back at his wife's face is not a selfish madness, but a "poet's choice". This seems to cast a poetic and beautiful light on her and Eloise's sad fate not to be together.
The bonfire staring is the essence of the whole movie. The two of them are looking at each other by the bonfire, with the dark night as the background, looking at each other and laughing, while the other women's acapella seems to add a full sense of ritual to the warming of love, Such pure images, such pure plot, such pure love. A montage of arm-in-arms leads us to their first kiss. Here, the plot reached its first climax, and the flesh and spirit felt the love of each other at the same time. "Do all lovers know what they are inventing?" An unprecedented emotion and experience. Kissing, stroking, gasping, fingers, lips, skin, eyes, without any sound modification, only less gorgeous close-ups, but so beautiful and moving. Marianne has twice seen visions of her lover in the dark in her wedding dress, and she fears the end that must be lost in the end. They quarreled, arguing about why that couldn't be changed, but circumstances couldn't let them run away. The portrait is completed at this point.
Marianne left a portrait of their lover for them, like a farewell gift before parting, and there is no room for sadness in the eyes of admiration. Eloise's book is also about the ancient Roman love poet Ovid. However, the parting will eventually come, and the lover's wedding dress has become a reality, not so poignant and vigorous. The director is also extremely restrained in his handling of parting, with his face expressionless, standing, empty staring, and simple language, which makes people feel more sad. It is not until the last "please look back" that this flashback reaches the end.
The students saw her sadness but did not understand it. This sadness was a secret for herself and the audience.
The first meeting after that was in a painting. Marianne's drawing of Orfeo and Eurydice echoes the preceding discussion. "Usually people paint him before he turns back or after she dies, but this one is like saying goodbye." Of course, this is the poet's choice. Isn't a loving parting a beautiful poetic picture? Lovers who already have a beautiful daughter still hold their fingers in a secret love symbol that only they understand - on page 28, the raging fire of love that had been in a short period of five days has not been extinguished by then.
The second time they met, the eyes did not meet, but the emotion reached the second climax. With Marianne's powerful perspective, accompanied by Vivaldi's presto, Eloise couldn't help crying, the melody between Marianne's fingers, and all the memories of her beloved suddenly flooded into her heart, just like the music in the music. Depicted storm. The memories that have been suppressed for a long time and the nerves that have been restrained by the audience for a long time have been released heartily between the notes. But the camera is unidirectional, Marianne's reaction has become a big blank, and the audience is consistent with her perspective, and her performance is left to every audience watching the movie to guess and experience. Although they may never meet in the future, they have been deeply engraved on each other's heart walls. Unfortunately, they are enviable. Because of this, this love is so amazing and unforgettable.
In addition, the texture of the oil painting in indoor photography is as beautiful as the indoor candlelight scene in "Barry Lyndon", and there is still infinite visual enjoyment in the relatively dull rhythm. In addition, the language and actions, and even the camera design tend to be minimalist, and the superb gestures, gestures and eyes of the two actresses support the drama of the entire film.
The imagery of water and fire is also worth mentioning. The vastness of the sea constitutes the geographical isolation of the island, an uncontrollable and boundless thing, and an abstract reaction of Eloise's love for Marianne, from learning to swim to learning to love, while the seaside The plot appears in every segment of the story. Fire is the most important image in the film, the most direct manifestation of the two's fiery love: the lit portrait of Marianne (dissatisfaction with the male painter's vision of Heloise), the bonfire, the burning skirt (the fire of love). burn on a lover) etc.
However, in addition to Marianne and the audience, the perspective of the last shot is also from the director Celine Sciamma, who was also the love of Adela Hanel, who played Eloise, in real life. But they broke up and became an ex-girlfriend. So this movie is also a double love letter that spans both inside and outside the play.
Non possum fugere.
(9.5/10)
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