The
2019 movie, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, is a stunning representation of deprived
destiny and lost love.
Centered
around a wondrous coastal landscape in Brittiany in the late 1700s, the story
centers on two young French women—Marianne, an artist and painter, and Heloise,
recently cloistered in a convent and brought home to enter an arranged
marriage. Her sister, who was supposed to marry the man, had killed herself by
jumping off a cliff into the sea. Heloise is to take her place.
Heloise,
however, has no interest in the marriage and is angry that her mother has
placed her in the arrangement. As was the custom then, a portrait was to be
made of the bride-to-be and sent to the groom to approve of his future wife.
But Heloise refused to sit for a portrait and had already chased off a painter
frustrated by the experience.
Enter
Marianne. Brought in as simply a companion for Heloise until the marriage was
finalized, her real purpose was to get to know Heloise and from snippets of
memory paint her in secret so a portrait could be produced.
There
is a scene early in the women’s acquaintance where they are out walking near
the cliffs with the ocean below. Heloise darts off running full speed and
Marianne, startled and fearful she will follow her sister in death, runs after
her. Heloise sprints to the edge of the cliff and stops. She turns and says,
“I’ve dreamt of that for years.” Breathless, Marianne says, “Dying?” And
Heloise says, “Running.”
It
is a metaphor for the rest of the movie.
For
most of us, life is not a straight line. Few of us ever really know who we want
to be or what we want to do. Often life takes us places that end up choosing
for us. As time goes by, we find ourselves running from something or to
something not really knowing what that is.
In
the film, Marianne and Heloise fall in love. But in the strictly patriarchal
society of their time where men oversaw everything, and intimate relationships
were only intended to be between a man and a woman, their love has no real
future.
Yet,
their affection for each other is so tender and genuine, and softly seductive,
that it creates an ache in watching it knowing how forbidden it is. To see such
a deeply personal romance unfold, only to be soon ended by the moral rules and
conventional censure of their day is profoundly instructive.
The
film reminds us how in our own time love is too often defined by arbitrary
barriers. When in truth, love has no human boundaries in terms of sexual
identity. Obviously, I am talking about adult relationships outside of family. When
shared honestly, respectfully, and equally, they can become something
beautiful, even holy.
Marianne
and Heloise were running from the stifling mores of their culture and their
time in history, just as they were running toward each other. Genuine love
cannot be forever confined or prohibited. It can break away and have its
momentary meaning, as was the experience of these two young women.
Marianne
finished the portrait capturing the essence of Heloise’s beauty and strength.
The two eventually part ways. Heloise goes off to fulfill the arranged marriage. Marianne leaves
to become a skilled painter and art teacher.
Running
eventually has a destination, and if not our destiny, at least a place where
love still has a chance.
©
2020 Timothy Moody
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