Avery McAdams

During the beginning of Portrait of A Lady On Fire I was discussing with my peers our predictions for the film. Interestingly, we all had the same idea that Heloise and Marianne were going to get together, even at the beginning of the film. But why? The film was very slow paced and at times would go an entire scene with no talking. I concluded that this impression we were getting mostly came from expression. You can see throughout the film, the words that the film lacked were practically written across these women’s faces, more specifically in their eyes. 

Mid-shot of Marianne and Heloise. Focus on their eyes especially Mariannes.

Close up of Marianne and Heloise. Focus on the intensity in Heloises eyes.

In these two photos shown above, you can see the intensity in their emotion, especially their eyes. Specifically in the top photo, I feel like you can almost hear what Marianne is thinking as she looks at Heloise. There is something so intense about the way she stares at her, with love and almost pain because they can’t be together forever.

There was another scene in the movie of Heloise, Marianne and Sophie the maid playing cards together. In this scene, very rarely did you see their hands putting the cards down. Instead, the shots of the camera were focused on their faces and expression, more specifically Marianne and Heloise as they looked at each other and smiled and laughed, something that was rare in this film. This really showed to me that the director of this film wanted to focus on their facial expressions to show the love, rather than so many words.

My main takeaway from this movie revolved around the expression. I think that eyes play a huge part in telling you about how the characters are feeling. Its such a subtle but effective approach in film. The stares, the looking at one another’s lips, the slight furrow in their brows. The little things really add up and affect the watchers impressions, as it did for my peers and I in Portrait of A Lady on Fire. I really enjoyed this film and would watch again!