At the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in 2019, the famous French female director won the "Queer Palm" award for her new work "The Woman Who Burned the Portrait", becoming the first female winner since the establishment of the award in 2010.
In fact, as early as 2007, she was nominated for the Best Debut Award at the 33rd French Film César Awards with "Daffodil Blossom", and she made her debut in the film industry. The director herself as a homosexual and her inspirational muse, that is, the heroine of these two films , the cooperation can be described as perfect, the two joint works have gained a good reputation, and from the film "The Woman who Burns the Portrait", we can fully see the progress in this genre film, and the characteristics of her female perspective are vividly reflected in the film. It tells the story of a forbidden love affair in the eighteenth century.
Looking at the same-sex films in film history, there are not a few outstanding people, and Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" and Wong Kar-wai's "Spring Break" are among the representatives. But overall, they mostly focus on the emotions between men, depict women less, and have fewer high-scoring works, it can be said that the birth of "The Woman Who Burns Portraits" fills the gap in this aspect of the same genre films, and Serene Sienma also lets us understand the different sexual tensions between the same sex with the unique style of gentleness and delicacy. The first female queer Palme d'Or director, how delicately and elegantly enriched the sexual tension of the picture.
A slow and connotative story
The whole film is carried out from the perspective of the painter Mary, using an interlude method: the beginning is that Mary, who is already quite accomplished in the art of painting, sees the old painting that was accidentally turned over by the students, and her past with Lois slowly unfolds in the form of memories, and the context is simple and clear. As people often say: "See the truth in the details", the emotions between two people are actually not complicated, and the people who love each other are worried about each other all the time.
The whole story pattern is not large, and it has not risen to the height of the country and history, but the director uses the element of "portrait" to connect the whole story, so that the time of its appearance and the emotional progress of Mary and Lois are different, achieving the effect of layers of expression, which is particularly moving.
This film is also known as "the most beautiful film of the year", the reason for this is that in addition to the excellent visual experience brought to the audience by the picture itself, it also lies in its beautiful and pure depiction of the special emotion of "sex", which is also the outstanding feature of this film - there is no large-scale shot that can make the audience really feel the love between the two, and the director added some detailed metaphors here, so that the emotional tension between the two people in the picture has enough depth of content support.
(1) The transformation of "bed drama"
Regarding the transformation of the straightforward shots that appear in the film, it can be said that it is one of the most successful shots in this film, using the shield of a mirror to successfully resolve the embarrassment while also reflecting the face of the other half, so symbolically explaining the physical relationship between the two people to the audience, implicitly but giving the audience a greater visual impact.
(2) The fusion of "mythical stories"
In the middle of the film, one night, Mary, Lois, and the little maid discuss a story from Greek mythology at the table: "Orps came to the mansion to cry out for the resurrection of his dead wife, and the only condition for the popular gods to respond to this request was that they could not turn back when they left the realm of yin and yang." As a result, Orps, who could not restrain his thoughts, turned his head at the last moment, and his deceased wife Eurydice was destroyed. And from the subsequent plot, it is not difficult to find that the two of them are in the form of Lois begging Mary to turn back and say goodbye, and the director uses this to imply that they are like Orps and Eurydice, and they will not see each other again.
Two warm yellow romantic light and tones
If the slow and connotative story progression sets the emotional tone for the whole film, then the choice and processing of the film's picture tone further sets off the feelings of Mary and Lois and increases the sexual tension when the two get along.
As soon as the film came out, many film critics praised it as "as beautiful as oil painting", and the reason is that in addition to the costumes of the two heroines that originally copied the French style of the eighteenth century, it is more that the director's grasp of light and shadow has been as accurate as painting, not much, not much.
(1) Natural light
The story takes place on a small island in France, and the outdoor shots in the film are carried out on the seashore during the day: the soft sunlight comes from the other end of the sea level, through the blue and cold sea, adding color to this pair of passionately loving souls, enhancing the persistent smell in the air, as if it can float out of the screen and infect every audience.
It is worth tasting that at the end of the film, when the two say goodbye, Serene Sianma directly "opened up", gave up the traditional effect of pursuing the "rendezvous" and "transition" of light and shadow, and projected the shadows of the two heroines directly and untreated onto each other's faces, with obvious dark contrasts, to show that they loved each other deeply, like shadows, intertwined.
(2) Life light
To create this warm yellow hue, there is also the indoor night candlelight, and unlike the bright and hot day, the night picture has a more ambiguous and entangled taste, because the overall brightness is reduced, people tend to think of some extremely obscure aspects, directly hitting the deepest part of human emotion.
The same is true of Mary and Lois in the film, from the first time they really accept each other, Mary sees Lois in her sleep naturally painting for her, and Lois looks back at Mary affectionately, to the first physical contact after witnessing the little maid's miscarriage; to the two people having each other for the last time the night before the duchess returns, the substantive leap of their feelings takes place at night.
In addition, the director's use of light is more meticulous, she also uses candlelight as a contour light, projecting the faint fluff on the faces of Mary and Lois when the camera is closer, which is a delicate beauty that belongs to women alone.
Three distinct and extreme scenes
"Small depth of field, large close-up", throughout the film, it can be said that this method is used to the extreme. In fact, it is not a big close-up, because it is describing the feelings between the two heroines, so the push shot of the close-up is more common.
The close-up scene above the chest has been widely recognized in the film to explain the relationship between the characters, relative to this, the director's treatment of the depth of field is more ingenious: First, the choice of small depth of field, in the greatest expansion of the space, increase the distance between people and the real background things, the room where the two people live together in the artistic creation of the re-transformation of the "expansion", enhance the character's emotional malleability, and this is also the result of the emotional burst between the two people.
Choosing this method increases the emotional tolerance in the same picture and the sexual tension is visibly enhanced with the naked eye. Moreover, the focus of the protagonist in the front is real, the background in the back is virtual, and there is a more prominent character meaning, as if the whole world is no longer important except for the two people in the eyes of each other.
Iv. Beautiful performances by actors
Adela Harnell, an actress who often follows French films, first starred in Christopher Lukia's "Devil's Child" in 2002, at the age of 13, before leaving the film industry for many years, and in 2007, starring in the director's "Daffodil Blossom" returned.
She has enjoyed many honors in the French film industry over the years: in 2014 she won the Best Supporting Actress Award for "" and in 2015, Adèle Hahnel won the Best Actress Award for "First Love Warrior".
She is also known as a feminist, and at the 2014 César Awards ceremony, she also acknowledged Yu's love affair. It should be said that in terms of her experience and identity, no one is more suitable to star in this movie than her, and judging from her performance in the film, it is true, even the actor of Mary, who played with her, said that "I couldn't resist Adella's charm during filming." "
Throughout the film, the interpretation of Lois who dares not look back at the end is "the highest light".
Chai Jing once said: "Seeing love should be a person's attitude towards another person, not the reaction of one organ to another organ." "
Just as every plant and tree in the world has its own reason for existence and should be respected, we cannot retaliate with fear and discrimination because the feelings between the same sex violate the Lord.
This is especially true for filmmakers, as Luis Janetti said: "Cinema is not only an entertainment, but also an educational tool, through which people can gain a deep understanding of different cultures and different time and space, and also allow us to understand the workings of the human mind, both men and women, young and old."
As one of the many film themes, the same-sex theme has a more special social reality foundation, which requires film practitioners to uphold a tolerant attitude to enhance the plasticity and inclusiveness of their own works, expound this problem in their own way, and contribute to the value guidance of society.