This blog post explores how the love between Marianne and Héloïse in the film Portrait of a Lady on Fire expands into a new narrative of farewell through the Orpheus myth.
Set in late 18th-century France, Portrait of a Lady on Fire depicts how women discover and preserve their agency within the confines of arranged marriages. Director Céline Sciamma meticulously portrays the oppression women faced under the social backdrop and male-dominated authority of the time, while also showing how solidarity and love between women can blossom beautifully. In this context, the film transcends a simple romance, narratively unfolding the process of reclaiming female agency through the emotions of love and artistic expression, conveying profound meaning. This analysis focuses on the love and farewell depicted in the film, and the reappropriation of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.
First, the film emphasizes the beauty of ‘love where two individuals stand as subjects on equal footing’ through the relationship between Marianne and Héloïse and various narrative devices. The film explicitly depicts the marriage and love experienced by women of that era as fundamentally unequal. Héloïse and her mother endure inequality in marriage, where they are not even permitted to see each other’s faces beforehand; instead, portraits must be sent first. While the mother seeks to pass down the very history of inequality she endured, Héloïse yearns for an equal love, even citing equal treatment as a good reason for entering a convent. Amidst such social pressures and inequality, Héloïse and Marianne’s relationship evolves into a special love where each respects the other as a subject.
The film depicts how their relationship shifts to an equal footing and they fall in love through the portrait. The portrait serves a role beyond being a simple painting; it acts as a window for them to see and understand each other. In the film, Heloise’s portrait is painted twice. The first is a painting Marianne created while hiding her identity as the painter, painting from a one-sided, observational perspective. This work is completed while Marianne does not yet see Eloise as an equal. The second portrait is painted when Marianne stands before Eloise without pretense, both in a state of ‘equality’. During this process, Marianne confesses that she too feels discomfort when becoming the subject of a painting, but Eloise responds, “We are on equal footing. When you see me, I see you too,” reversing the objectification of the portrait subject into subjectivity before Marianne and the audience. Thus, the process of painting the portrait can be interpreted as a journey of deepening love, a symbolic scene where they break free from the unequal love prevalent in contemporary society and achieve their own equal love.
Furthermore, the film portrays farewell not as dread or regret, but as something to be remembered and cherished. It depicts farewell not as passive resignation but as an active choice, which is another crucial theme of the film. In the film, when Marianne asks, “How will I know when the painting is finished?” and receives the reply, “When you stop painting, it’s finished,” it seems to imply that farewell is an active choice to stop loving. As they prepare to part, Marianne and Eloise share each other’s portraits to cherish and remember well, conveying their true feelings to one another. This leaves a powerful impression, showing them sharing and creating the history of their love together rather than dwelling on regrets about the past.
Marianne and Héloïse’s parting is also expressed as a device reappropriating the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Midway through the film, Héloïse reads aloud the myth of Orpheus, who sought to bring his wife Eurydice back from the underworld. Regarding this myth—where Orpheus breaks his promise to the gods not to look back while escaping the underworld, ultimately losing Eurydice—Marianne interprets it as “the poet’s choice,” while Eloise suggests Eurydice might have said, “Look back.” This difference in interpretation reflects their distinct ways of viewing their love and farewell. Later, at the moment of parting, Héloïse tells Marianne, “Look back,” as if she were Eurydice, elevating their relationship into a mythical scene. After their separation, Marianne returns to her life as a painter, immortalizing their farewell as an artistic memory by painting the scene of Orpheus looking back. This process of reinterpreting myth and granting Heloise agency elevates the film beyond a simple story of separation, crafting a painful yet beautiful and active narrative of farewell.
Thus, Portrait of a Lady on Fire depicts women finding their agency amidst the inequalities of their society, through diverse themes and symbols surrounding love and farewell.
