“A manifesto about the female gaze”that is how Director Céline Sciamma describes Portrait of a Lady on Fire. This theme was ever present throughout the entire movie and is so important for how we as viewer perceive the entire film and the characters within it. I believe to fully understand the power of having a movie be in the female gaze we first have to contrast it with a direct opposite. I want to contrast this movie for a second with a movie that I believe is “the male gaze” personified. The Wolf of Wall Street, in this movie women are merely props used to show the desires of men. They have no real purpose other than fulfilling fantasies teenage boys would have and it literally fails the Bechdel test, which if you don’t know is the criteria of having two named female characters speak to each other about something other than a man. The women are soulless, lacking depth in their characters as most of the time a woman is shown in this movie, they are either a hooker, stripper, or trophy wife. Of course, this movie was written and directed by 2 white men, that feeling that comes along with watching a movie where you can just feel that a woman had little to no input in the way women were portrayed in the film is overwhelming in this. It is the complete opposite of the beautiful, Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, takes us on a journey of gazing. From when Marianne first looked at Héloïse as her hood fell and she turned back to her posing for a portrait, to her being drawn while sleeping, to the very end when Héloïse called out for her to turn around and face her. This movie is all about how the artist views their subject, how a look can mean more than words can allow, and it feels like we are watching a subject, turn into a muse.
I watched this 12 minute breakdown video about “the gaze”within this film and this video creator quoted Jean Paul Sartre, a French philosopher, to help explain that she believes that the gaze always objectifies whatever we are looking at. Sartre said, “…we can not perceive the world and at the same time apprehend a look fastened upon us; it must be either one or the other. This is because to perceive is to look at, and to apprehend a look is not to apprehend a look-as-object in the world; it is the consciousness of being looked at.” In this movie, Marianne begins as just a painter, someone who is used to watching without really being seen herself. As her relationship with Héloïse progresses she strips Marianne of just being “the painter” she humanizes her. We learn about Marianne, we perceive her. One of my favorite scenes in this movie was when Héloïse asked her to come look from her perspective while she was posing, and it cemented our understanding that there is always 2 sides, as we look, we are also being looked at.
However, as we look at each other our predispositions, our stereotypes, our assumptions are being imposed onto whoever our subject is. Even if they are the complete opposite of who we initially think they are, we can’t help but to assume. As a woman, the female gaze in media has always seemed softer, more forgiving, more loving, more honest, more real. I watch movies made by men that have shallow interpretations of female characters, and maybe that’s how they view women. However, when I watch movies directed by women, they never strip the men of their depth and the women always feel more real, like someone you’ve met. I think this theme is ever present in this movie, because the women have life. They fall in love but they are more than just “love interests”, they have hobbies, passions, backstories, monologues, deep thoughts, they are themselves before they are lovers and I often think that movies made in the male gaze portray women as just props for love, sex, and heartbreak, as if all we can do in this life is be loved. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is important because it shows the female gaze so well. It shows the love, the empathy, and the understanding of one woman to another that is unspoken, yet perfectly understood. Along with this, we see women in a time period that is so restrictive, being free.
Our professor for this class said something about this movie that stuck with me throughout the entire screening, “this movie uses lighting in a way that is unique, the light looks like it’s coming from them, not at them.” I believe that is the female gaze in this movie, light coming from them, despite being in a oppressive time period, despite not being able to fully be in a relationship, despite knowing their fates, light comes from them, not at them. These 2 women (like all women) are incredible and resilient, deep and poetic, and fostered love in a circumstance that would normally breed anger and hate. That too, is the female gaze at work and it matters so much in media because women are more than just props for what men are going through. Women are multifaceted and they deserve to be shown on screen as such. This film is brilliant, I hope more directors use the female gaze, it is wonderful to see on screen!
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