Loading...
Start Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
In Linda Williams’s (1991) seminal essay, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess,” the author addresses questions of gender construction in three genres that depict “the spectacle of a [female] body caught in the grips of intense sensation or emotion”: pornography, the melodrama, and horror (161). Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a notable recent example of the celebratory recurrence of global woman-directed films at the Cannes Film Festival, might be classified by some as melodrama. The film is certainly tied to and concerned with emotionality. During the film’s climax, Héloïse is preparing to depart the island for her marriage, and Marianne must subtly communicate her love through a brief hug as she hurriedly leaves the house. As Marianne rushes out the door, Héloïse tells her to turn around, and Marianne sees Héloïse standing in her wedding gown as she closes the door. The scene certainly invokes an emotional reaction—it is, after all, the undoing of the love story built throughout the film—but it also connects to scenes earlier in the film where Héloïse appears to Marianne in this very dress, but as a ghost, striking fear into both the character of Marianne and, perhaps, the viewer. Portrait of a Lady on Fire thus does not simply construct gender through melodrama, but also invokes and reinvents horror in order to do so. More specifically, the film invokes a specifically female-oriented attribute of horror, gothic atmosphere, in order to communicate feminist concerns with marriage.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire: Haunted by Marriage
In Linda Williams’s (1991) seminal essay, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess,” the author addresses questions of gender construction in three genres that depict “the spectacle of a [female] body caught in the grips of intense sensation or emotion”: pornography, the melodrama, and horror (161). Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a notable recent example of the celebratory recurrence of global woman-directed films at the Cannes Film Festival, might be classified by some as melodrama. The film is certainly tied to and concerned with emotionality. During the film’s climax, Héloïse is preparing to depart the island for her marriage, and Marianne must subtly communicate her love through a brief hug as she hurriedly leaves the house. As Marianne rushes out the door, Héloïse tells her to turn around, and Marianne sees Héloïse standing in her wedding gown as she closes the door. The scene certainly invokes an emotional reaction—it is, after all, the undoing of the love story built throughout the film—but it also connects to scenes earlier in the film where Héloïse appears to Marianne in this very dress, but as a ghost, striking fear into both the character of Marianne and, perhaps, the viewer. Portrait of a Lady on Fire thus does not simply construct gender through melodrama, but also invokes and reinvents horror in order to do so. More specifically, the film invokes a specifically female-oriented attribute of horror, gothic atmosphere, in order to communicate feminist concerns with marriage.
Bio
Brecken Hunter Wellborn is a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Dallas. He received his Master of Arts in Critical Media Studies from the University of North Texas in 2018, where his research focused primarily on gender, race, and sexuality in twenty-first century musical film. His academic research interests include genre studies, culture studies, queer theory, and fan and audience reception.