NUIT journal · English translation
They desire. Who tells the story?
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu and Les Amours d’Anaïs: two fictional films that ask whose desire we follow, who watches and who shapes the story.
French original: 25 October 2026
Looking for a film with women’s desire at the centre of its story? Céline Sciamma’s Portrait de la jeune fille en feu and Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Les Amours d’Anaïs offer very different beginnings. In one, a painter must observe a woman who refuses to pose. In the other, an attraction unsettles existing relationships.
We place them together for a question you can ask before watching: whose desire does the story follow? This selection draws on distributor presentations. It is not a review based on watching the films in full.
A woman refuses her portrait
Pyramide’s synopsis places Portrait de la jeune fille en feu in 1770. Marianne is commissioned to paint Héloïse’s wedding portrait. Because Héloïse refuses to pose, Marianne presents herself as a companion and must paint her secretly.
Several ways of looking already exist in that situation: the painter’s, the gaze required by the commission, and the image the subject accepts or refuses. It gives a reason to choose the film for an evening about desire and representation. Who has the power to decide what Héloïse’s image will be?
That question is our reading suggestion. It does not assume every image in the film provides a simple answer. After watching, you might discuss whether the relationships between the characters changed how you understood the starting situation.
Anaïs follows an attraction that disrupts the plan
Haut et Court’s presentation of Les Amours d’Anaïs begins with a thirty-year-old woman, money difficulties and doubts about her relationship. Anaïs meets Daniel, then becomes interested in Émilie, the woman he lives with. Desire helps reorganise the story.
This beginning allows us to follow a woman who feels an attraction and acts on it. We do not have to approve of every choice. How much room do we allow a female character to hesitate, make mistakes or want something that complicates other people’s lives?
The connection with Sciamma’s film concerns the place given to characters and their wishes. The synopses describe distinct situations. Neither film has to provide a single definition of female desire or represent all women.
Which one tonight?
Begin with Portrait de la jeune fille en feu if an artist’s relationship with her subject interests you. Choose Les Amours d’Anaïs if you prefer a love life complicated by successive encounters. The French profiles include optional official trailers and attributed public reviews; those extra materials remain labelled as French.
Trailers reveal images and moments from a story. You can skip them and stay with the synopses. To continue towards the norms and expectations surrounding desire, our Desire without instructions feature brings Sciamma’s film together with two essays.
Works and sources
- Portrait de la jeune fille en feu · Céline Sciamma · Official source
- Les Amours d’Anaïs · Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet · Official source
NUIT selection based on official presentations consulted for the French article on 25 October 2026. It is not a review based on watching the films in full.