“Ever since Laura Mulvey coined the phrase ‘male gaze,’ people have been theorizing about what its female counterpart could look like. In Portrait de la jeune fille et feu, Céline Sciamma simply show us – not in an academic, theoretical way, but in an emotional, moving, sensual way.
“The key scene happens later in the movie, once the subterfuge has been abandoned, and the three women – painter Marianne, subject Héloïse, and maid Sophie – form a temporary all-female community. So far the main ‘gaze’ shown on screen has the one Marianne trains on Héloïse, scrutinizing her to find out how to fix her essence in paint. But then Héloïse shows Marianne – and thus, us – that she’s been looking back, all along.
“There are many elements in this movie that show the hand of a female filmmaker, not least of them the everyday portrayal of an abortion, a chubby baby playing nearby. But perhaps this is Sciamma’s most radical statement: that to truly provide a viable alternative for the male gaze, it is not sufficient to look at different things, in different ways; it is not enough that the gazer is female, or even that the audience is presumed to be. It is only by allowing the gaze her own point of view that old ways of looking can really be subverted.
“Portrait de la jeune fille en feu – odd, that the title was translated as the more generic-sounding ‘Portrait of a lady on fire,’ when the literal translation is closer to ‘Portrait of the young woman on fire’ – would probably have been my favorite film of 2019 even without this scene. It is so tenderly and gorgeously filmed, so acutely observed, so achingly romantic. But that scene is one of a few that make this a movie more than just a beautiful love story; but also hopefully an inspiration to future filmmakers of any gender.” ~ Hedwig van Driel
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