How Good Filmmaking Brings a Script to Life

hi i'm michael this is lessons from the screenplay the midpoint of portrait of a lady on fire contains some absolutely brilliant filmmaking and i've become obsessed with it it's a deceptively simple scene about the evolving power dynamic and a burgeoning romance it has 10 lines of dialogue 9 cuts 4 shots 2 camera moves no music and a conventional structure but every one of these seemingly basic elements dramatically enhances the narrative and themes each character is carefully placed within each frame to bring attention to the theme of observer and observed while the camera moves as if pulled by the gravity of the shifting power dynamics and the pacing of the scene dictated by the editing blocking and performances amplifies the emotions of each beat admittedly none of these things are particularly related to screenwriting and thus not what we would normally explore on this channel but the filmmaking in the scene is so great that i want to make an exception this one time or at least that's how the video was going to start as i was finishing up my first draft of the video i made one final attempt to find the screenplay for portrait of a lady on fire and as luck would have it i happened to find a group of amazing people on tumblr who had painstakingly translated the screenplay to english shout out to anna amy greywing victoria and dina their links are in the description below along with a link to their translation of the screenplay as i read the script i was pleasantly surprised to find that every filmmaking technique i wanted to talk about performance blocking editing sound camera framing was written into the screenplay this reveals the impressive foresight of writer director celine siyama and confirms that she was considering all of these techniques even during the writing process so today i want to do an in-depth breakdown of how ciama deftly uses every cinematic tool from the writing to the camera to the pacing to capture and convey the emotion in this expertly crafted scene one of many in portrait of a lady on fire

in order to understand how the cinematic tools used in this scene enhance the story we first need to know what the story is let's start with the context of the scene as i mentioned this scene comes halfway through the movie and it features the two central characters marianne has been commissioned to paint eloise's portrait which will be used to secure a marriage for eloise that will take her away from france but eloise does not wish to be married off and has been less than cooperative when it comes to posing for the portrait forcing marianne to attempt painting eloise in secret by this point in the story however a tentative friendship and perhaps something even more is forming between marianne and eloise so now that we have that context let's take a look at the script and break down the beats of the scene there's the setup my end and i know my french is bad i'm sorry mayan is struggling to paint eloise i can't make you smile i feel that i manage it but it's like it disappears then comes the inciting incident of the scene as mayan teases eloise and hurts her feelings eloise says anger always wins in the end i end with you for sure aryan then goes on to smugly demonstrate how well she's come to know eloise while painting her eloise tries to say that she hasn't heard her but marianne points out when you're emotional you do this with your hand myen does this two more times when you're embarrassed you do this and when you're annoyed you do this rule of threes then marianne reveals her belief that in this situation she has more power as the observer as she says forgive me i would hate to be in your place but then at the scene's midpoint eloise contests this idea saying we're in the same place exactly the same place eloise calls over marianne so she can see things from her perspective and points out if you look at me who am i looking at eloise then proceeds to use the rhythm of mayan's own words as a refrain pointing out that she is just as much an observer and thus has just as much power when you don't know what to say you do this when you're afraid to upset you do this in doing so eloise breaks down ryan's defenses and creates the crisis of the scene her turmoil thus exposed renders marien silent this leads to the climax where mayana must decide how she's going to react to this confrontation the distance between them seems to shrink even while they remain still this leads to the resolution as mayan retreats from eloise who has gained equal footing in the relationship and leveled the playing field so now that we understand the story that's being told let's look at the cinematic techniques that bring the story to life beginning with the camera

portrait of a lady on fire explores the idea of looking both on a metal level celine siama has described it as a manifesto on the female gaze as well as on a textual level siama says of the confrontation it's an absolutely pivotal scene it's the scene which marks the shot reverse shot dynamic of the film what's the power of the person who's watching who is watching whom in the scene the power is held by the observer throughout marianne and eloise's relationship up to this point this has been marianne simply because she is the painter and eloise is the subject so how does the camera portray this dynamic in this scene as in previous scenes of painting cinematographer claire matone frames marianne the observer in a medium close-up she's slightly shielded by the easel and canvas and the physical position of the camera is relatively close to her making us feel like we are with her eloise the observed is framed in a medium shot with the camera further away so that we are essentially seeing her from marianne's point of view unlike marianne there's no object shielding eloise she is completely exposed to the camera's gaze so with this visual relationship established how does the camera help convey the shifting of power within the scene at the midpoint eloise calls over marianne in order to show her how things look from her perspective so marianne steps into eloise's frame then as eloise dismisses marianne's false perception of their dynamic the camera pushes in as eloise claims power she grows larger in the frame and as she demonstrates why they are in the same place we see them framed as equals one of the people who helped with the translation of the screenplay grey wing who also did a breakdown of the scene which i'll link to in the description describes this moment beautifully it's so seemingly simple but the enormity of the revelation of realizing her state of exposure this entire time and the tension in which lurks a different revelation one of attraction forces marianne to flee the frame as marion exits the frame the camera pushes in even further until eloise is framed exactly as marianne was at the start of the scene and in the final shot we see marianne who was framed even wider than eloise was at the start of the scene this visual reversal is spelled out clearly in the screenplay for the first time we see things from eloise's point of view and the shift is a revelation it is she who was watching and from here marianne looks fragile and feverish in fact writer director celine ciama said this is the only time we will have this frame on marien looked at in her own fragility by the model so the way the camera moves how it frames the characters and how those characters move within each frame precisely convey the shifting power dynamics of the scene but there's another filmmaking technique at play in the scene one that is less obvious but just as important the pacing a filmmaker can use dynamic pacing to direct the audience's attention and to affect us emotionally making us feel comfortable or uncomfortable pacing can often be driven by the musical score but portrait of a lady on fire doesn't have a score the only music in the film is diegetic which means that the characters can hear it because it comes from sources within the story world this diegetic music is used sparingly and to great effect it was kind of scary because peeled peace without score and love story without score you gotta take that decision very on in the process of writing because you're not gonna write film the same way because you're gonna you have to find this rhythm and also be aware that you will have to find the melody and the musicality of the film elsewhere because of the lack of score the musicality and rhythm of each scene were determined solely by the editing performances and blocking the actors positions and movements so how do these elements enhance the story of the scene if we pay attention to the rhythm of the dialogue we can see that silence is used to punctuate each important beat for example after marianne hurts eloise's feelings there is a beat of silence this highlights the impact of her words which serves as the inciting incident of the scene with the following lines marianne illustrates her power by demonstrating how well she knows her opponent she wields this knowledge almost like a weapon so the patience with which actor noah me merlon delivers each line conveys a confidence that each of her strikes will land let's play back these lines and pay attention to how the moments of silence both between each line and within each line stretch longer and longer until eloise finally caps off the exchange with a quick retort see it's worth mentioning that these beats of silence are suggested in the screenplay signaled by brief action lines that describe performance something relatively uncommon during this first half of the scene the editing cuts back and forth between the characters with relative frequency selectively allowing the audience to see both actors performances as desired but then comes the midpoint and just as it marks a reversal and the story of the scene it also marks a reversal in the rhythm of the editing as soon as eloise takes control the cutting back and forth halts instead the next 77 seconds of the scene are played in a single take exactly again this technique is suggested in the screenplay along with the role that sound design plays the sound of marianne's footsteps approaching eloise waits for her and the cameras brain finally marianne joins her here the blocking is used to convey authority eloise stays seated and like a queen commanding a servant she summons marianne across the room and into her frame because the only sounds in the scene are those that come from the actor's movements celine ciama even takes care to select the number of footsteps that will create the right pacing it's about the rhythm of the steps the breathing and so most of my solutions they are musical solutions like for instance i would really tell them like you're going to her this is five steps it's not six it's not four because it's not the same like five sticks or sip steps it doesn't feel the same six steps feel complete for instance five steps it's like a there's a still a question in here like you would be missing a step so maybe the next step will be the kiss for instance you know silence is used once more to punctuate the critical turning point of the scene and as eloise uses marianne's own tactics against her eloise's confidence is accentuated by actor adelenel's even greater patience with each line again the editing and sound design are suggested in the screenplay we don't leave eloise's gaze as we hear marianne return to her place behind the easy eloise returns to her role as the subject but with a new found power and the last edit of the scene finally breaks the long take the pacing of the scene works in tandem with the camera's framing and movement to dramatically enhance the simple scene about shifting power

but i want to point out one last thing about the power dynamic and the moments after eloise has demonstrated she is as much of an observer as marianne there is a powerful tension but it isn't a tension filled with anger or loathing it's a tension of desire while marianne has been studying every aspect of eloise marianne the implications of this revelation suddenly render marianne vulnerable and a question hangs in the air will they kiss in fact originally this was the scene where they did kiss for the first time if you haven't seen the film it might seem odd that there is so much romantic tension surrounding this power shift but the beautiful thing about this scene and this film is that it's not about seizing power in order to dominate it's about deconstructing the power dynamics between the observer and the observed to unlock equality it's only after marianne and eloise have achieved a quality that their desire can blossom into love writer director celine ciama uses all the cinematic tools at her disposal to create a beautiful story about equality between artists between lovers between humans and as eloise says i first heard about portrait of a lady on a fire on mubi is the curated streaming service featuring an excellent selection of films from all around the globe and they're the sponsor of this video if you like portrait of a lady on fire then you'll love movie because this is exactly the kind of movie that they feature art arthouse films some of which you've heard of and even better many of which you haven't in fact if you're in the uk you can watch portrait of a lady on fire as one of the many excellent films that movie has now showing regardless of where you are you can get 30 days of mubi for free by signing up at movie. com lfts you'll be supporting this channel and getting a free month of great cinema thanks to mubi for supporting this channel and for introducing me to portrait of a lady on fire thank you again to all the people who translated the screenplay for this film once again all of their links are in the description below and if you want more portrait of a lady on fire check out our podcast episode where we dive deeper into all the things that make this film special a link to that is also in the description below thank you to our patrons for making this channel possible and thank you for watching