Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire)

Céline Sciamma's film reads Ovid inside the story. Héloïse, Marianne and Sophie read the story of Orpheus and Eurydice from the Metamorphoses aloud and argue about why Orpheus looked back, and the film's ending is built on that choice: the poet's choice rather than the lover's.

The film puts the myth on screen and then argues about it. Marianne, Héloïse and Sophie read the story of Orpheus aloud together, and the scene turns into a disagreement about why he looked back. Héloïse's answer is the one the film takes: he turned because she asked him to, and he chose the memory of her over the woman. The last act is built on that reading. Marianne sees Héloïse in a doorway, turned towards her, and the painting is what she leaves with. Céline Sciamma has discussed the myth as the film's organising idea rather than as a reference, which is why it is filed HIGH: take it out and the ending has no shape.