The 2019 movie Jodie Foster believes everyone should see: “Should be taught in every course”
Anyone who loves movies will have a go-to recommendation, whether it’s a childhood favourite, a comedy classic, or a movie that fundamentally changed them as a person.
Jodie Foster’s go-to pick is, however, one that came out rather recently, and she calls a certain 2019 film one of her all-time favourites – the actor has been a stalwart part of the industry since she was a kid, attracting praise for performances in everything from Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone to the original Freaky Friday. Continuing her career into adulthood, she, of course, won her first Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs, while she has also embarked on a filmmaking career of her own.
Yet, when it comes down to it, one of her most coveted films is the fairly recent Portrait of a Lady on Fire, directed by Celine Sciamma. Sometimes, it doesn’t take long for a movie to become one of your favourites, and it doesn’t have to have existed for decades to make it into the cinematic canon as one of the best of the best, either.
I mean, when the BFI’s Sight and Sound conducted their decennial ‘The Greatest Films of All Time’ list in 2022, Sciamma’s film, which had only been out for three years at that point, placed at number 30. That means it even ranked higher than the likes of Bicycle Thieves, 8 ½, Modern Times, and The Godfather Part II.
Foster adores the film, which was quickly hailed as a masterpiece upon its release, widely regarded as one of the most important queer films ever made – the movie, set in the 18th century, charts an unusual relationship between an aristocratic young woman, Héloïse, and the woman, Marianne, commissioned to paint her portrait against her will, and having lived in a convent and uninterested in marrying a man, Héloïse is reluctant to have her portrait painted, but with Marianne, she slowly opens up, and they begin a passionate affair that can, of course, only result in disappointment.
It’s an incredibly moving film – the final scene alone is worth endless praise – and Foster thinks it should be “taught in every course”. Describing her love for Sciamma’s creation during a trip to the Criterion Closet, she called it “an absolutely deliciously beautiful film.”
Foster sees it as a “period movie that couldn’t be more relevant and contemporary,” adding, “Some people talk about it as being one of the first films to really illustrate what a female gaze would be and would look like.”
Sciamma uses the very centring of a female painter and her gaze – her perspective – to decentre the male gaze, which has historically had an impact on many sapphic stories; just look at Blue Is The Warmest Colour. Using intimate framing and lighting, Portrait of a Lady on Fire carves out a space purely for these female characters, and it’s astoundingly personal and delicate, but ultimately tragic.
“It’s emotional, it’s intelligent, it’s beautiful,” Foster says. “A great film.” It’s a movie that Foster holds close to her heart for personal reasons, too, having officially revealed her sexuality during a 2013 Golden Globes speech.
She concluded, “I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago, back in the Stone Age… But now, apparently, I’m told, that every celebrity is expected to honour the details of their private life with a press conference.”
In a landscape where coming out is seemingly necessary and lesbian relationships are still some kind of taboo, movies like Portrait of a Lady on Fire are more important than ever.
