This week’s Cinechats selection: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
The campus community is invited to enjoy a film screening presented by Cinechats, which is supported in part by Â鶹´«Ã½ University, Durham College, Arts Forum and the Durham Council for the Arts. Age restrictions apply, as most films are rated for those 18 years of age and older.
This week’s selection is (France, 2019).
A female painter is hired to surreptitiously paint a portrait of the daughter of a wealthy matriarch. Héloïse has been promised to a stranger in an arranged marriage in place of her late sister. She is unhappy about that arrangement, and she welcomes the company of the newcomer, who was ostensibly brought to be her temporary companion. But the artist, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), develops an artistic and romantic attachment to her subject (Adèle Haenel’s Héloïse) in this artful, character-driven combination of love story and portrait of the artist and of the living object of her desire.
Writer/director Céline Sciamma says that the film is about the dynamic between love and art. It is very much a female-centric film, and there is a feminist worldview evident in its pairing of equals. This is a time, after all, when women aren’t supposed to be painters; when young women are expected to obediently acquiesce to arranged marriage; and when same-sex romantic relationships are unacceptable.
- When: Thursday, August 24 at 6:30 p.m.
- Where: Gordon Willey Building, Room C-113
For more information about Cinechats, call 905.576.0359. Note: Film selections are subject to change.
