Sapphic Culture Club

So many of you have messaged us about your experiences surrounding Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and it made us want to hear ALL of your Portrait stories. We asked you a bunch of questions on Instagram, and you came through with hundreds of responses. Some of you even recorded audio responses! 😭 In Part 1 of this series we'll share how many of you saw Portrait in a theater, what country or city you...

Let's all pile into our 18th century boat and row from the coast of Brittany to the coast of San Junipero for a different seaside lesbian love story. Whimper alongside us as we surrender our hearts to the combination of Mackenzie Davis's Resting Yearn Face and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's searing-in-literally-any-decade energy because OOOH HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH. ✨🌴💕 Watch "San Junipero" Season 3, Epi...

Doctors Deepa and Jen from the Docs Watch podcast help us understand the various aspects of 18th century abortion portrayed by Portrait of a Lady on Fire. We'll answer questions like: what's running and hanging from the ceiling supposed to accomplish? What was in that tea? What was that stuff the midwife pulled a twig out of, and where did the rest of it end up?? Get ready to find out, be grateful...

Thanks, as always, to everyone who asks us anything. We cover a lot of ground this week! We talk about #PortraitWatchParty, Ammonite, how to wean yourself off Portrait (if you want to 🤷🏽‍♀️ ), what might've made Noémie blush during filming, thumb detectives, and more. Links from the show: Kate Winslet Says Sex Scenes Are Not Like Eating a Sandwich - https://www.vulture.com/2020/08/kate-winslet-a...

THE RESULTS ARE IN! This week we discuss the results of our poll about how much "lesbo expo" (a.k.a. our VERY COOL abbreviation for "lesbian experience") Marianne and Héloïse had before they met each other. We also read some of the responses, and wow, y'all had OPINIONS. 💕🔥 Links from the show - Free French learning marathon! https://www.fromance.tilda.ws/ - When Brooklyn Was Queer (Note: Laurel...

This week it's all about SOPHIE! She's smart, talented, resourceful, and a great hang (get it???). It's also through Sophie that we get a broader experience of the film's world as she shows us sorority, community, domesticity, and more. So let's pour each other some wine, get out our embroidery hoops, and chill with our very best BFF.  Link from the show: Céline Sciamma on Sophie - https://ww...

In this episode, we talk to Aixa about why she decided to started the fan accounts, how it feels like Portrait gets inside you while you're also inside of it, how it's surprisingly similar to E.T. aaaaand...she graciously, patiently teaches us Portrait Spanish. (Ay, dios mío.😓 ) Links from the show Portraitofaladyonfirefans on IG: https://www.instagram.com/portraitofaladyonfirefans/ Portrait_Nati...

Honestly, we thought doing another episode of 28 things we noticed about Portrait of a Lady on Fire might be a bit of a stretch, but we were wrong! We've got lots of fun facts AND heartbreak for you this week, so join us on a FUN EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER! 😭 🎢  🥰  Links from the show: Thanks (as always) to... https://ladyonfire28.tumblr.com/ Laurent Sciamma, title designer: https://www...

Finally. Finally , we answer all the questions we've received about armpit drugs, the armpit sex scene, and armpits in general. We talk at great length about axillary hair. We bravely plunge in and out of depictions of manually- and substance-induced pleasure. We even give recommendations for Armpit LARPing! (LARmPing?) So join us in this veritable pit of ecstasy! Links from the show: Flying Ointm...

Look, we all love how Portrait of a Lady on Fire broke our hearts and made them stronger, but . . . what if Héloise and Marianne found each other after the symphony? What if they got to talk to each other?? WHAT IF THEY GOT TO HANG OUT AND KISS AND STUFF AGAIN?? This week we talk to Vittoria, who has written what is arguably the best Portrait fan fiction out there. the dreadful need in the devotee...

Come, dear souls, as we sit by the fire in our drafty, isolated French château to commune with Heather Petrocelli, the avid film researcher and horror cinephile behind Queer for Fear. We discuss the exquisite gothic themes that appear throughout Portrait of a Lady on Fire (a haunted house! beheadings! ghosts! witches??). Heather also gives us even MORE reasons to be awed by Céline Sciamma's genius...

This week we're talking to David Anderson, a good friend of Audrey's who has listened to the podcast but not watched Portrait! (?!?!?) We were SUPER CURIOUS about what bizarro version of the plot he might have embroidered into his mind, so we asked him! And then we quizzed him, game show-style, on various bits of dialogue and scene recall . . . yes, yes, from a movie he hasn't seen. So, rub in som...

Portrait fans rejoice! Our favorite film has gotten the Criterion Collection treatment. The CC release includes a slew of insightful interviews with Céline Sciamma, Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Claire Mathon, and Hélène Delmaire; a handful of new subtitle tweaks (plus at least one pretty significant subtitle change); and more. We also discovered that the Blu-ray and the DVD versions are different...

Welcome to another mailbag episode! This week we discuss whether or not Héloïse checked Marianne out after she came back from church (a.k.a. the sexiest time to check out ur girlfriend), how we feel about how white queer movies seem to be, whether or not Marianne had an abortion, and whether or not the countess knew about their relationship! Dang! We also talk about fun stuff that's been floating...

In anticipation of Criterion's official Portrait of a Lady on Fire DVD release date in a few days, we decided to watch the whole thing together for the first time. Want to hang out and watch it with us? GREAT. Make some popcorn, grab your delicately embroidered handkerchief, get comfy, and hit play!

In honor of National Pride Month (in the US at least), we decided to talk about how much Big Dyke Energy (a.k.a. BDE) Marianne and Héloïse exude. Once you start looking for it, you see it everywhere, so we narrowed our list down to . . . you guessed it: 28 instances. We also talk a lot about ducks. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈 🦆 Links from the show: Medium article Nylon article

This week we're joined by Alex Heeney and Orla Smith who co-authored and edited Portraits of Resistance , the first book dedicated to the filmography of our queen, Céline Sciamma. We talk to them about their interviews with Céline, Adèle, and Noémie; how Céline changed the way they think and talk to other directors about film; their top films of the decade; and much more. Links from the show: The...

In this episode, we sit down with writer and film critic Valerie Complex to talk about interviewing and hanging out (?!?!) with Céline, Adèle, and Noémie (SPOILER ALERT: they're great). We also discuss Portrait fan fiction, queer cinema, diversity + representation, 3 Lesbian Lawyers, a "fascinating friendship", and so much more. Links from the show: • Valerie Complex: https://valeriecomplex.com/ •...

We are workin' our way through our inbox! This week we talk about a VERY IMPORTANT CORRECTION OMG, why Marianne's first portrait triggered so many hurt feelings, who Marianne might be narrating this story to, what's up with their scarves, and who makes the first move!

NEWSFLASH: there is SO MUCH FIRE in Portrait of a Lady on . . . what was it again? Oh, yeah. EFFING FIRE. I mean, we all got the figurative fire and some of the literal fire, but there's so much more when you try your best to ignore the growing, burning desire between the two clearly smitten French island lesbians and HEY [*claps at your face*] JUST FOCUS ON THE LITERAL FIRE. We definitely missed...

So, it turns out Portrait Nation has A LOT of questions. In this special bonus episode, we try our best to answer two of them: "Did Marianne and Héloïse have period sex?" And "Why didn't they ever try to meet up again?" (Edit 9/11/20: after recording this episode we realized we used gendered language throughout the following discussion. We recognize that trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer people ca...

Chers amis, this week we welcome our very first guest: the gracious and brilliant Aimée. You may recall us mentioning the person who's translating the POALOF French DVD commentary and posting it to Tumblr as ladyonfire28, yes? Well, today she's here to teach us all Portrait French! And we, your intrepid American podcast hosts, try very hard to learn it. But first, we talk to Aimée about how she fe...

Buckle up, fellow Portrait lovers! Today we're going scene by scene and talking about some of the film's hidden gems. Along the way, we discuss things like whether Sophie knew about Marianne and Héloïse's relationship and how great pockets are! Then we introduce a new segment: "In Solitude We Saw the Tweet You Spoke of" where we talk about some of our favorite Portrait content around the Internet,...

Not sure if we've mentioned this enough, but we love Portrait of a Lady on Fire. LOVE. IT. In this episode we gush about why we love it, what our first (and second, third, etc.) impressions were, what our favorite scenes are and more. Did we say we love this movie? We love it. We love it like Marianne loves a dry canvas. We love it like an armpit loves witchy drugs. We love it like fancy 18th cent...

Bonjour, all you womans! If you found this podcast on your own, you probably already know that Portrait of a Lady on Fire has spawned a rapturous and loyal fanbase. In this episode, we'll discuss some of our favorite aspects of Portrait Nation: the memes, fan art, tumblogs and more. Mentions: Héloïse and Marianne as Bear and Otter by @downtownzoe on Instagram Translated DVD commentary by @ladyonfi...