Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

It is a very good movie. I thought I would dislike it for its topic, but it is a very well made film.

whats the lesbian scissoring situation like

So would you say you liked this movie?

That was my pick for best film of 2019. A tour de force : the story is extremely predictable, yet it is surprising and mesmerizing the whole way through.

Personally I would not read too much into it. If it was more systematic or if there was a strong case to be made for each character having its color and possibly a symbolic attached to it, I might go for it, but here I think it's simply an aesthetic choice with the set designer, costume designer and cinematographer. The story takes place mostly in the house, Heloise has to be painted in the same dress and Marianne has a limited wardrobe because she travelled to the place. These three elements naturally result in a visual combination that is often repeated, so you want it to be visually pleasing and have the characters be distinct from each other. If this logical necessity did not exist - for instance if Marianne had 5 dresses, all of them red - then it would feel to me like a strong stylistic choice worth analyzing deeper. There is nothing wrong about doing it anyway though

An example of a strong stylistic choice could be Tokyo Drifter. It has a strong color coding for the different gangster factions and dynamic lightnings that underline changes in the plot.


PS: While I am bumping this, another great film centered on a lesbian couple was Carol. There are some themes in it that I wish were explored and are not, but the ending is so powerful !

lovely movie.

but yeah, movies like this always drive me nuts. Rich entitled women laments having responsibilities. wants freedom to do whatever, whenever. also running away and living like a peasant getting a job is not an option obviously.

Color wheel talk.
RGB is LIGHT.

Paint is red yellow blue.
1766.

the mother does wear blue constantly in her appearances. theres probably something to the bold primary color talk. The maid wears yellow in most of her cloths.
and Heloise wears solid blue pretty consistently when not in the green. multiple blue cloaks, dresses.

commoners, and abortion lady are all in grey.
the girls wear white in bed together, and the hallucinations, and Heloises wedding dress. with the Hallucinations being of future Heloise in her wedding dress, vanishing as Eurydice does.

and the ending has, Marianne is in a striking blue standing in front of a painting of Orpheous who is wearing the same blue, with Eurydice in white..
VERY clear symbolism there..

the painting of Heloise has her in white, with an orange/yellow/gold ribbon. with daugher/son? in white.
and Heloise herself in white/gold as well at the theatre.
so likely intent there as well. But no idea what. Other then the clear Orpheous tie in, I have no idea what any of the other color ties were.

no one wears green other then the portrait dress.

Just caught this.. Mesmerising is the right word. Beautiful movie.