3 things I learned from Portrait of a Woman on Fire
What is it with lockdown and the sudden release of these intense romantic movies and television series? I don’t know about you, but I’ve found in recent weeks there has been an influx of raunchy love scenes. I’m not complaining, but with the halt of any interaction of the outside world, it’s proving a challenge for us singletons to watch. Damn you PR managers, cleverly using this time of isolation to taunt us. ‘Portrait of a Woman on Fire’ recently got added to this list. It’s a newly released French film set in 1770, which explores the eternal love between Marianne, a painter, who is commissioned to study another woman’s day to day life to secretly paint her wedding portrait.
Here are three things I learned from the tantalising tale.
- You can relate to any gender couple on screen
I realised this first when watching “Call me By Your Name” a few years back. When the two men kissed on their bikes through the streets of Italy, I noticed I began to long for their relationship. Okay, it was Timothée Chalamet at the end of the day. But he liked men in this film, so why was I attracted? It’s down to the detail and the truth that the director goes into to express the love and intensity they have for one another. Again, watching Portrait of a Woman on Fire, seeing the two female actresses kissing each other tenderly in sex scenes also made me long for that of my own heterosexual desires. Celine achieved this by using the camera’s lens to intensely explore each touch and stare between the characters. I challenge anyone in the world to watch this film and not want to french kiss the next person at their door bell.
2. French accents are incredibly sexy
There is something so artistic and delicate about french accents in films. Picture this, Danny Dyer opens his new hard-hitting series about ‘Scariest men in Russia’ with a french accent. Doesn’t quite work right? French accents have a way of expressing love like no other accent in the world. With the fluency of the french language, the romance shines through with the stunning words exchanged between both characters and I found myself giddy from the sounds.
3. Painting a portrait is an underrated talent
The detail that Marianna goes into to create the portrait, with accurate swoops and light flickers, was so admiring to watch. I was transfixed and also soothed with the scenes of her painting (worryingly I feel I have a catalog of youtube videos to look into). But it made me realise the incredible talent these artists have, sitting there for hours, days or weeks, studying every detail of a human to then create their mirrored image on a white canvas. These people should be receiving medals for their patience.
