Talk about Existential Feminism. Day-um, this video essay by Broey Deschanel is, not only, a comprehensive analysis of Portrait of a Lady on Fire but also of Jean-Paul Sartre’s concept of the gaze. 

When other people see us, we become, but what we become is something out of our control. We are what they want us to be: a supporting character in a narrative we never get to read.  

When you’re in a marginalized group, other people’s version of you is more than just an abstract confine, it is tangible oppression. Portrait of a Lady on Fire does a small but formidable job of exploring the gaze and its power over us as people and as women.