When I became aware of how delicate this story was as it unfolded to its end, I was moved to my core. It is one of these very pure and true stories, told with love and respect for the characters as well as those watching them breathe, yet we keep waiting for a moment of emotional violence between the main players, which doesn't occur. Second, the respect for the audience, to not settle for petty narrative cliches when there were so many opportunities in this story to resort to them. The fact that it was shot in digital rather than a traditional film look for a period piece somehow heightens and modernizes the proceedings in a way that made its most visual moments feel fresh and completely new. Each frame is a thing of aesthetic delight, of color coordination, of subtle lighting and design elements all married into a whole.
Such refined artistry is a rarity in the days of quick-consumption digital, and it goes to show how the technicians that work behind the camera are as important as what is happening on screen. This subtle touch gives the film an essential underpinning to what is otherwise a beautiful love story. So the specter of control is injected throughout, although this theme is only hinted at. The painter, a young woman, at the end of the film displays her work under the name of her father, unable to present her work under her own name. But repression pervades each scene - the subject of the painting is an aristocratic woman who is on her way to be married, and yet she isn't thrilled at the prospect and she might not have a choice in the matter.
There is a backdrop of male dominance overhanging the period in which the story is set - the film contains few men, and when they are seen, they appear as benevolent figures. The film is about a love affair between a painter and her subject, both women, and in a sense it is as simple as that. But then I watched Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, and found it so revelatory and refreshing that I thought I would add my dollop of daisy to the ocean of praise this film has rightfully been getting.
I haven't written a review in a while because frankly there haven't been too many great movies in recent years to warrant any.
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