Instead, love grows with us as our understanding of it evolves. Love contains multitudes and it does not leave us. We carry a plethora of love stories in our hearts. Instead, Portrait of a Lady on Fire separates them for reasons which make sense given the time period and also, as Sciamma's comments imply, because love stories are still love stories even if the relationship ends. There is nothing inherently melodramatic or overwrought about the end of Marianne and Héloïse's relationship.
#PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE FULL#
The film is the memory of a love story it’s sad but also full of hope." Our great loves are a condition of our future love. Why do we believe that eternal possession of somebody means a happy ending? Love educates us about art. We have the romantic-comedy philosophy – a frozen image of two people being together – and we also have the tragic ending. "Yes, and also because I wanted to question what a happy ending is. She knows they will not be able to stay together and, as we eventually see, she makes the choice to keep the memory, knowing she will lose Héloïse forever.Īs Sciamma pointed out in a March interview with The Independent, the traditional "happy ending" for Marianne and Héloïse was never the point: He doesn't make the lover's choice, but the poet's." Marianne's words seem like an acknowledgement of the fate of her relationship with Héloïse. While Sophie is upset, Marianne says Orpheus' decision as one which makes sense, explaining, "Perhaps he makes a choice. Héloïse reads out the poignant and sad twist of the story: Orpheus, who travels to the underworld to retrieve Eurydice breaks the rule to not look back as his love as they exit the underworld, sending her back to the depths until he can join her again. It is the song Héloïse heard only a portion of as Marianne tapped it out from memory on the harpsichord during their time together and, as Héloïse listens to it in full all these years later, she begins to weep which lets us know she has held on to the memory of this song as something important, a keepsake of her time with Marianne.Īnother powerful moment in Portrait of a Lady on Fire is Héloïse's reading of the "Orpheus and Eurydice" myth by firelight to Marianne and Héloïse's servant, Sophie ( Luàna Bajrami). From Marianne's point of view, we zoom in as Héloïse listens to the Presto section of "Summer" from Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The other moment is the final scene, where Marianne sees Héloïse attending the same orchestra performance as she. Marianne sees Héloïse has been painted holding a book and her finger marks the page of a book Marianne drew a self-portrait on for Héloïse to keep.
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She happens upon a new portrait of Héloïse with her young daughter. In one scene, we see Marianne during a crowded gallery exhibition. We know this through two key final moments.
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Portrait of a Lady on Fire concludes years after Marianne and Héloïse have parted ways, knowing they could not change the hands life dealt them and instead holding tight to the memories of their time together.