Feminine and feminist cinema. Is there such a thing? If there is one, I think ‘Portrait de la jeune fille en feu‘, the film written and directed by Céline Sciamma, which received the best screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival, would be the best example. The film is designed, made and played almost exclusively by women, actually there is no consistent male character, and in fact almost no men show up on screen excepting the introductory and the final scenes. Although the action takes place sometime, at the end of the 18th century, in a world of men, where those enjoyed almost exclusively political and economic rights, it describes a mini-universe of women and their struggle to be at least in part master on their fate, and to assert themselves socially and artistically. If anyone is shocked by this concept of an exclusively feminine movie, they should think about the countless war or action movies, or about westerns in which the heroes are exclusively or almost exclusively men. ‘Portrait de la jeune fille en feu‘ is also a contemporary response to the misogyny that dominates part of the history of cinema. But first of all it is a beautiful film with expressive and important messages.
There are four main characters in this film, all women, all forced to fight the rules and prejudices of the time and society in which they live. The Countess (Valeria Golino) lives on an island in Normandy and dreams of returning to her native Italy, which she had left behind by marriage. The only way that is accessible to her seems to be the marriage of her daughter Heloise (Adèle Haenel) with an Italian, but for this she needs a marriage portrait. After a failed attempt, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), an artist independent in character, with apparently a little more life experience, is invited. She also feels constrained in her art by the limits imposed by the society to women artists. The quartet is completed by the servant Sophie (Luàna Bajrami) who also has her secret – an unwanted pregnancy, which was very difficult to get rid of in those times. Between Heloise, just out of the monastery, forced into a future marriage before she could taste life, and Marianne, the artist who sublimates her feelings in art, a relationship starts, a relationship that will evolve into something that has no chance in the times in which the story is placed.
There are many interesting things in this film, but I think its charm comes in particular from the sincerity and lack of emphasis with which the relationship between the two girls is described – the discovery of the other but first of all the self-discovery of each one, the hesitations and the joy of being in each other. find in the other. Beautiful and convincing. The image is beautiful, almost every frame is elaborately elaborated in color and composition. The source of inspiration is the art of the period in which the action takes place, the avant-garde art of that period I would say, because it iuses the palette of artists who would dominate French art until the middle of the 19th century – Gericault, Millet, Corot. The film does not have a music soundtrack, but the music itself plays an important role, which deserves to be discovered when watching. The political message is clear and assertive, and we cannot help but sympathize with those women, each forced to face her own destiny alone, a century before women’s rights became a topical issue in Europe. ‘Portrait de la jeune fille en feu‘ is a film about art, about love, about the place of women in the world. A movie that deserves being looked for and seen.