Portrait of A Lady on Fire is a story set in 1770 in France where a painter by the name of Marianne is commissioned to paint a portrait of Heloise to be sent to a suitor. Heloise, however, refuses to be painted because she refuses to be married to someone she doesn’t know. Marianne must paint Helosie in secret by studying her throughout the day and memorizing her features. Throughout this time, a relationship grows between the two of them. Within this film, we are shown not only the story of the painter and her muse, but we are also shown the rarely told story of the muse and her painter.
The movie studies the lives of women, the way they think, the way they survive, and the way they love each other. A pivotal scene in the movie is Marianne, Heloise, and the house-maid Sophie all sitting together around the table reading the story of Eurydice and Orpheus. Throughout the movie both Marianne and Heloise mirror the story of Eurydice and Orpheus. While reading the story out loud together, the women sit together and interpret this story foreshadowing what’s to come in their own story.
If you don’t know the story of Eurydice and Orpheus, the story is a tragic tale where Eurydice travels to the underworld to save his love Orpheus from death.The only way for Orpehus to live again is for Eurydices to walk ahead of her in the darkness and not look back to see if she is there until they have reached the light. Eurydice fears she is not there anymore and turns and Orpheus falls back into her death.
Marianne explains how Eurydice made the poet’s choice rather than the lover’s when he turned around to see if Orpheus was still behind him. Marianne says that Eurydice chooses the memory of Orpheus rather than her life. This is when Heloise jumps into the conversation and advocates that instead of Eurydice choosing to turn, it was actually Orpheus who said turn around.
This interpretation of the story changes everything. Helosie changes the power dynamic between the artist and the muse or the man and the woman because in this case, we have two women who express that this equality between them is freeing. This moment gives a voice to the muse with just the two words “turn around.” The muse is now a person instead of just a piece of art, she has feelings and desires and most importantly, she has autonomy over her own life and choices.
At the end of the story, we see the final moment when Marianne must leave and Heloise must marry another. It all comes down to one moment when right before Marianne walks out the door, we hear the words turn around from Heloise and with that she chooses the poet’s choice, the memory of Marianne.
The muse was the one who chose. She is given power over the direction of her life. The story is not to say that Orpehus did not love Euydices or that Helosie did not deeply love Marianne. The story shows the equality and pureness of the female gaze when it is given freedom to love and choice freely.