Female Gaze and Resistance

Critical Analysis of Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Abstract

Portrait of a Lady on Fire, directed by French director Celine Sciamma, won the Queer Palme d 'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and was hailed as "the most beautiful film of the year." It tells a love story between a female painter and a wealthy young lady waiting to marry in the 18th century, which was taboo at that time.

Celine Sciamma used a minimalist style of shooting to make the film, and it is breathtakingly beautiful. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a slow movie with slow plots, little dialogue, much white space, and no background music. It is like a display of daily life, but every camera frame is like an 18th-century painting. As the screenwriter, Celine, who is also a lesbian, uses unique skills in narrative, camera montage, and film space to make the film stand out in Cannes, especially in the rebellion against the male gaze and the application of semiotics.