Life as Distinct from Patriarchal Influence: Exploring Queerness and Freedom through Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Abstract

This article examines the interconnection of queerness and freedom in Céline Sciamma’s film Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The article focuses on the unattainable relationship between Héloïse and Marianne, their friendship with the house maid, Sophie, and the life of Héloïse’s mother, la Comtesse, to demonstrate how cultivating queerness can undermine the existence of patriarchal influence in contemporary society. Specifically, we argue that the inherent queerness within mutually affirming and supportive sapphic relationships, and any state of living where a woman maintains singleness, can foster independence, and therefore greater freedom, from restrictive and oppressive law. We first consider assisted reproductive technology and superannuation provisions to demonstrate how these laws create a normative cultural framework of heteropatriarchal oppression. We then analyse the film, using it as a thematic touchstone to explore how the heteropatriarchy is undermined through queerness. Ultimately, the film’s representation of life without the masculine gaze begs the question of how women can continue to avoid the fixation of the patriarchy within contemporary society and our laws.