#The Cinematic Resonances of ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’

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• Meg Shields
• July 31, 2020

Here’s a video that teases out the cinematic resonances between ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ and the work of Jane Campion, Stanley Kubrick, and others.

There are some shots, in film, that feel tied together. Maybe it’s the composition, the colors, or how the camera moves. But sometimes when you see a shot your brain can’t help but feel its resonance with another.

Here’s what I mean: In the pre-virus times, I was having after-movie drinks with some pals and someone at the table asked: “what movie am I thinking about when I think about The Keep?” The answer was Sorcerer. The shots tying the films together were both tense, earth-toned, visions of vehicles traversing forbidding terrain: towards a towering ziggurat and across a rotten bridge. Because these iconic moments share similar formal elements, iconography, and a vibe, they feel linked.

This idea, of “linked” shots is the driving idea behind Candice Drouet’s “Déja Vu” series with Canal . In the video below, Drouet has teased out the cinematic resonances of Portrait of a Lady on Fire: from the superimposed faces of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona to the pastoral frames of Jane Campion, to the candlelit courts of Kubrick. The result is a truly spellbinding assemblage of cinematic synonyms; shots that rhyme with each other and, side-by-side, paint one truly resonant portrait.

Watch “Déjà Vu: Portrait of a Lady on Fire/Canal “:

Who made this?

Paris-based actress and videographer Candice Drouet is an old favorite around these parts. She was worked with the likes of Adidas and Fandor, and currently collaborates with the French premium television channel Canal . You can follow Drouet on Instagram, here. On Twitter, here. And you can check out her back catalog of videos on Vimeo, here.

More Videos Like This

• Drouet’s lyrical split-screen examinations of film-resonance are pure bliss. But she doesn’t just use her powers for Oscar darlings. Here’s her look at all the film-echoes in Venom (*chef’s kiss*)
• Another from Drouet’s Déjà Vu series: on the influences and visual similarities in The Favourite
• Ok, one more (these are addictive), on Mission: Impossible – Fallout 
• Here’s a video by Frames of Empathy, narrated by director Céline Sciamma, on how Portrait of a Lady on Fire captures the slow rise of desire 
• What can Portrait of a Lady on Fire tell us about “the gaze”
• Here’s the Criterion Collection, with a clip from their interview with Céline Sciamma