Portrait of a Burning Woman: an immersive experience with the texture of classical oil painting

Author: Rice

French cinema is always so different, full of artistic atmosphere and freedom. This is very different from hollywood's commercial atmosphere, and there are no politically correct constraints.

The French film "Portrait of a Burning Woman" is such a typical French art film, and its classical oil painting texture is amazing from color to composition. Although the slow brushstrokes of the heroine in the first half will occasionally distract the audience, the isolated narrative space will gradually make people fall into the small world of closure, the film uses beautiful and exquisite images to outline the audience's charming emotional storm, creating the entire viewing process into an immersive emotional experience.

The film tells the story of several women in a small island castle. Among them were powerful mothers who wanted to enter Milanese high society through their daughter's wedding, daughters who tried to get rid of the marriage sale, female painters who sought creative freedom, and simple little maids. There are very few male characters in the film, and this is a pure story about women's identity.

The story takes place in Brittany, France in 1760. The female painter sailed alone to a castle, and she had to complete the portrait that the young lady would use when she got married without the knowledge of the other party. The two women went from strange to familiar, from confrontation to cooperation, and finally from friendship to affection. The little maid also experienced stealing, pregnancy and abortion, and the three women remained silently rebellious in secular society, and thus formed an alliance.

In the eighteenth century, European women were basically male subordinates and vassals of male power. The art world was also dominated by academic male painters, and female painters were difficult to recognize in that era. The heroine of the film is such an embarrassing female painter - she has no way to copy the male body, but can only practice by looking at other people's works; their creative space is very limited, and even the exhibition must use the male name. The film illustrates the feminist enlightenment of the time through the multiple identities of female characters—a mild enlightenment that differs from the feminism that is now prevalent, but rather the implicit enlightenment of women in terms of career, marriage, and even sexual freedom.

The female painter found inspiration in such a short journey, and her works from the initial stereotypical realist academic school to the later free-spirited romanticism to the impressionism full of rich emotions skillfully combined the protagonist's mind and artistic painting style.

We can see that the last painting of the female painter, the film title "Portrait of a Burning Woman", is very similar to the Impressionist pioneer Turner's "The Fisherman of the Sea": the beautiful moonlight is obscured by dark clouds, but the light illuminates the earth through the gaps. Above the earth is a burning skirt, whether it is a fisherman who bravely marches in the great waves or a flame trying to break free of the shackles, it is the best footnote of an era.

The pace of the film is slow, the composition and color grading are very beautiful, each frame is like a classical oil painting, bringing the viewer the highest visual enjoyment, not only depicting the delicate inner emotions of women without difference, showing the unique romance, affection and meticulousness of French artists, but also reflecting the creator's greatest respect for film art and the big screen.

Listening to the thunder in the silent place, the two women met by chance in the theater many years after they were separated, pushing the uneventful story to a climax. As the fast-paced music entered, Adella Harnell, who played the rich woman, gave a performance that was godlike: she sat demurely, from holding her breath to her eyes wet, tears snatching out of her eyes, to smiling sadly— although she only blinked a few times, but each blink was thrilling, and all the emotions and eras were wrapped in such a long shot of a few minutes.

The film's director, Xi Amma, is one of the few people who can perfectly implement artistic theory in the presentation of images, and she believes that the whole film is a journey of gaze. Xi Amma is best at making the most extreme emotional mobilization of limited characters in a carefully crafted small world, and the reason why her stories between her pens and lenses are moving is often not because the plot is designed to be shocking, but because of her meticulous capture of the subtle emotional flow between the characters. Eventually, these feelings and encounters are projected back onto the audience in front of the screen.

The first traces of the female painter Marianne's brush on the snow-white canvas reveal the first step of "gaze"—the gaze of the painting. Countless times in the film, Marianne's painting process is directly presented to the audience. In fact, the texture of this film is also like a fine classical portrait, when the dim yellow candlelight in the room sets off a strong chiaroscuro contrast, and the light that hits the delicate faces of the characters blends out a warm and soft beauty.

For this film, how do we take the story of the women in the film as the perspective, and reflect on the co-development of women and society in reality, is the most real energy transmitted by this art film with oil painting texture. (rice)