Portrait of a Lady on Fire: The Secret Hidden on Page 28

Words written before

It was a forbidden romance. I clearly saw the love and desire floating in the air, filling the whole room, spreading with the smell of paint and canvas, but at the same time, I was suppressed by an inexplicable sadness and was suffocated, just like the people under the sun. Dust, in the warm light, is clear and hazy.

For 120 minutes, the entire film is a slow burn. The fire did not have the momentum to spread instantly, but slowly brewed in the dark, taking care of itself.

Director Céline Sciamma is behind this, slowly adding firewood, quietly watching the story burn. She does not let a spark slip away quietly, but makes each frame of the picture extremely exquisite, making you want to frame them in the most gorgeous frame, but you are afraid of disturbing their quiet and harmonious beauty.

It reminds me of "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and the nail that pierced the earlobe.

Through the screen, watching those brave and independent women immersed in music and poetry, you can hear the sound of dry wood peeling behind the flames.

Portrait of a Burning Lady/Portrait of a Burning Lady.

P.S. The following interpretation of the film’s title is just my thoughts on the Chinese translation. This interpretation may not hold true for French titles. If any French-learning friends find my mistakes, I sincerely hope you can point them out for me.

There are two ways to pronounce the Chinese name of the film. Before watching the movie, I couldn't remember it accurately. But when I thought about it more carefully, I realized there might be a deeper meaning behind it. ?

One is "Portrait of a Lady on Fire". In this reading, "burning" is used as an adjective to describe the state of the woman in the painting, meaning that the depicted object is burning at that specific frozen moment.

The other is "Portrait of a Burning Lady". This reading treats "burning" as an action. It represents the act of burning the portrait of a woman with fire.

These two readings contain three different meanings.

At the beginning of the film, the painter Mary guides the students in their creations in the studio and serves as the students' model. At this time, she accidentally saw a student move out a painting she had collected for a long time - "Portrait of a Lady on Fire". It is this painting that takes Mary and the audience into her memories, towards her past and love that are difficult to let go of.

This is also the first point of the film's title, which refers directly to the portrait that Mary created for her lover Lois at the campfire party. The so-called "burning woman" refers to Lois. At the bonfire party, she accidentally let the fire burn her skirt because she was fascinated by Mary in the night opposite.

Mary was entrusted by Lois' mother to paint a portrait of Lois, who was about to get married. Lois resisted his parents' orders with actions. She refused to be a model for the painter, which brought many difficulties to Mary's creation. When Mary finally completed the painting through her own secret observation and proudly showed it to Lois, Lois criticized Mary angrily.

She said: "But it is not alive, I can't feel the existence of vitality."

Behind this lies the second meaning of "Burning Woman", that is It's the fire in Lois's chest and a force against the world. Although the man who married Lois in Milan, the various painters, and the mother all wanted to freeze Lois in a painting, use a frame to confine her freedom, and use layers of paint to seal her wishes. A restless heart that breaks free. But she still couldn't be quiet.

At this moment, she seemed to be frozen, but there was an undercurrent surging in her heart, glowing with infinite vitality. There was a feverish power growing inside her. Perhaps one day, the flame of this power will spread, no longer bound by the body, and then burn the frame or even the entire portrait.

The so-called burning of effigy is actually to break the stereotypes and rules of women in society at that time. This is the third meaning behind the title, singing Céline Sciamma’s best wishes.

When I was talking about "In the Mood for Love", I talked about the door frame composition used by Wong Kar-wai and the meaning of the tight cheongsam worn by those women. They are like various social dogmas and moral constraints that restrict people to specific spaces. Here, the picture frame, as well as the women’s complicated clothing, the corset that makes them breathless, is not the same.

Burning Portraits is the desire to break through this limited space.

Painting is not like photography. It is impossible to accurately capture the model’s smile at a moment. What is finally presented on the painting is actually a condensation of all the artist's observations over a period of time. In an era when most painters were men, the women in oil paintings became the stereotype of female images in the eyes of men.

This is also the biggest reason why Lois was dissatisfied with Mary's first work.

At this moment, Mary and Lois have not yet determined their feelings for each other. Like many other painters in the past, she painted Lois as a statue and a flat object without any emotion at all.

She is just like the man who proposed to marry Lois, who completely ignored Lois's feelings in the marriage and created her own words. What Lois desires is the flow of emotion, to be on equal terms, to share a dynamic moment with a painter or a future partner, rather than to be manipulated and chosen by others.

Just as she asked Mary: "When you are observing the people in the painting, who am I observing?"

? Vivaldi's Violin Concerto "The Four Seasons" - "Summer"

The song "Summer" written by Vivaldi appears twice in the film. It is also my favorite song in the "Four Seasons" suite. In the fast-paced performance of the violin, I felt the sultry heat, restlessness, and uneasiness of summer. Like the deep bond between Mary and Lois, passionate yet restrained.

In order to help the audience understand the emotions he wanted to express, Vivaldi once inscribed a sonnet on the title page of the score of this set of music, using words to further describe the picture shown in the music. The general idea of ??the poem is this:

The summer is hot,

the herds are sleepy,

the pine forest is like a fire.

Turtle doves and canaries were singing.

A fresh breeze blew in my face,

In an instant, a strong north wind blew.

The shepherds were horrified,

weeping for the misfortune that fell from the sky.

The sleepy sick body could not sleep,

was even more afraid of lightning and thunder,

the livestock were also troubled by flies.

Ah! His fear had just begun:

A hailstorm

destroyed his crops.

(Information comes from Baidu)

It was the confrontation between the cold wind and the scorching heat before the storm.

In "Portrait of a Lady on Fire", the cold is a cage, a picture frame, a desert island villa, and rough waves. This heat is the urge to struggle, the vast sea, flying against the wind, and sprinting to embrace the waves.

It is a balance between reason and emotion, a contest between ethics and love, and a contest between dogma and free will.

The first appearance of "Summer" in the film is in a closed and private space - Mary's room.

There were only two people in this space, Mary and Lois, who were sitting close together on the narrow piano bench. While Mary recalled and struck the melody of "Summer" on the keys, she told Lois the story behind the music and painted the picture in Vivaldi's mind. In the intermittent sound of the piano, Mary secretly confided her uneasiness and fear, as well as her dissatisfaction with all external constraints.

At this moment, Mary may have fallen in love with Lois, but I cannot accurately judge this. But I know she seems to be suppressing something. Their bodies were so close, but they were still far apart.

Whether there is a distinction between superiority and inferiority, or whether it is a cover-up of deep affection, the distance between them at this moment is Mary's secret panic. It was she herself who introduced thousands of pairs of eyes into this space where only the two of them were, because she always kept the sharp gaze of the world in mind and moved forward cautiously under this gaze.

The second appearance of the song was in an open theater, in front of the public.

That was the end of the film. Lois was married and had a child. This time, what was before her was no longer a fragmented single note, but a complete and majestic piece of music, which seemed to condense all the power of the lover she missed. This time, no one will explain it to her. Replaced by turbulent memories and all the unwillingness.

Lois was at this end, staring intently at the stage, crying, while Mary sat at the other end of the theater looking at her in the distance. There is a vast theater between them, thousands of spectators, a society and the whole world. This distance, which is all reality, is the reason why they cannot stay together, and it is the burning picture frame that they have always longed for.

At this moment, although they were far apart, they were staying close to each other at another high place to keep warm. They looked down upon all obstacles together and fought against each other with the unquenchable enthusiasm in their chests and the memory of those short two weeks. The whole world.

Mary: "That is just a flash in the pan. Portraits that blindly pursue vitality will lose their true essence due to the passage of time."

Lois: "Not everything in the world is so short-lived. Like being passionate and sincere. ”

Mary and Lois

Mary is the male figure in this forbidden relationship. As a painter, she was doing work in a society dominated by men at that time. She has been to Milan, her movements are not restricted, and she has experienced the taste of love, which seems to be free. But in fact, before falling in love with Lois, she had always been trapped and in an invisible cage.

She is rational, repressed, has strong self-esteem, and is very concerned about the opinions of others, so she destroyed her paintings with her own hands under Royce's "provocation". She was not angry about all the injustices against women in society at that time. But compared to Lois, this anger is quiet, concealed, and carried out quietly.

So when the public prevented a female artist from creating great works by painting male nudes, she could only paint them in private and secretly.

Of course, her status also determines that she cannot resist as willfully and openly as Lois. For a female painter like her who relies on painting to make a living, only by covering up her sharp edges at the right time can she get stuck in this industry.

The relationship between her and Lois reminds me of Ennis, who is tired of making ends meet, and Jack, who is true to himself, in "Brokeback Mountain". When he reached middle age, Ennis shouted to Jack, who had become rich: "You have forgotten what it feels like to be poor."

The scenery of Brokeback Mountain has not changed, but the difference in material conditions finally made them different.

Mary came ashore from the sea and walked into the house; while Lois left the house and ran towards the sea.

On the surface, Lois is monitored by his mother, restrained by fate, imprisoned, controlled, and seems to be trapped in a cage. But she is really a trapped beast, full of ambition and untamed strength.

She is unrestrained in her heart, longs for freedom, and dares to fight. She is more enthusiastic and courageous than Mary outside the prison.

Lois will not bow to an arrogant painter. No matter you are male or female, the previous painters or Mary, as long as you regard her as a weak person who cannot control his own destiny, a lamb to be slaughtered, a woman to be married, or a soulless death that is no different from plaster. No matter how hard you try, you can't make her smile even a little bit in front of this arrogant fool like you. This is Lois' attitude.

When Mary interpreted "Summer" to Lois, she first touched the keys carefully through the cover on the piano. It was Lois who walked to the piano and lifted the cloth covering the piano for her, allowing her to actually touch the keyboard.

When the maid went to have an abortion without telling the mistress, Mary chose to lower her head and not look. It was Lois who taught her to face it and even later encouraged her to record this touching scene with a brush. . Women long for the right to choose abortion and the right to dispose of their own bodies without caring about the opinions of others. This also symbolizes the pursuit of equal rights and a higher social status.

Perhaps it is in these places that Céline Sciamma tells us with a silent tenderness and perseverance that in the future of their short love relationship, Marie will be under the influence of Lois. She was able to grow up, let go of her worries over the years, absorb the magnanimity and bravery from Lois, and finally be able to express her voice to the world.

The lovers who are destined to be unable to stay together are about to face separation. The two lean on the bed and talk to each other about their feelings. Lois hoped that Mary would draw her at this time so that he could remember her in the future.

Mary left the painting on page 28 of the book.

So the page number "28" became a tacit secret between the two.

In order to see herself, Mary placed a mirror on Lois. This is a mirror placed in a private part, but it does not make the whole picture erotic. On the contrary, it makes me feel that everything is so bright and magnanimous, and even contains a kind of hope.

For Mary, who had always been cautious and scrupulous about her words and deeds, this was a kind of liberation.

The mirror placed in her private parts illuminated her face, symbolizing that for the first time she had the courage to face her secrets, accept everything about herself, and no longer hide it. At this moment, although she is about to leave Lois, she has completed her growth. So after that, when the old man in the gallery asked, she was able to bravely admit that the painting about Orpheus was actually made by her own hand.

Lois: "Go back."

The maid, Mary, and Lois sat around the table, reading Orpheus and Eurydice of Greek mythology. The seemingly distant mythical story also clearly foreshadows the final ending of the two people.

In mythology, Orpheus, the son of the sun god Apollo, went to hell to save his wife who was bitten by a snake. Pluto warned him not to look back when he left Hades. Orpheus agreed, but at that moment, he couldn't help but miss his wife and looked back at her.

Such a story seems like fate, like a curse. Pluto's request seems simple, just like the discussion between the three women in the film. Orpheus only needs to hold back. He can stay with his wife in the underworld, so why did he turn around?

In fact, if it were that easy to do, Pluto would not test it like this.

As for Orpheus’s return, I tend to think of Mary and the maid’s explanation, maybe it’s just because Eurydice called him, it’s that simple. Just like when they were leaving, Mary hugged Lois in a hurry and rushed down the stairs. She thought she could escape from this place quickly. But Lois chased her out and stopped Mary.

"Turn back."

At this call, Mary turned her head without thinking. Perhaps it was precisely because of this turning back without a moment's hesitation that the two of them persisted in themselves and fought non-stop despite being separated in their future lives.

Mary saw Lois standing at the end of the corridor twice, wearing a wedding dress. This was her nightmare, the fear deep in her heart that she couldn't let go of.

She knew clearly that Lois could not escape his fate, but she wanted to use her paintings to personally send Lois into the arms of others.

In Mary's hallucinations, Lois is forever in darkness. As Lois said, Mary thought she was resigned and did not dare to resist. It wasn't until the last moment, when Lois actually stood on the stairs in her wedding dress and called Mary, that her body was illuminated by the bright sunshine.

That is the sunlight coming from outside the house, through the crack in the door. It comes from Mary's return.

If Mary had never looked back, neither she nor we would ever be able to see the "burning" woman illuminated by the light. This beam of light told Mary that Lois would not stop resisting even if she married Milan. And Mary's looking back also means that no matter where she goes in the future, she will listen to her inner voice.

Their farewells were simple and short, without many words or tears.

Everything is in that look back.

Just like the comment of the old gentleman in the gallery.

Perhaps throughout the ages, too many people have deliberately magnified the mourning and sorrow of Orpheus and Eurydice.

As far as they are concerned, it is just saying goodbye.