How does Celine Sciamma write?

Celine Sciamma is a French screenwriter and director who primarily explores gender fluidity and female sexual identity in her mesmerizing films.

Whilst attending La Fémis, the première French film school, she wrote the original script for Water Lilies, a film that follows the sexual awakenings of 315-year-old girls set around a swimming pool in a Paris suburb. She made the film in her hometown only a year after graduating from film school and it was chosen for screening in the section Un certain regard at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Next, her short film, Pauline, an eight-minute monologue, was made in 2009 as part of a government anti-homophobia campaign called ‘Five films against homophobia’. Similarly, Tomboy, a 2011 film telling the story of 10-year-old Laure who explores their gender presentation and uses the name Mikael when the family moves to a new neighbourhood, was shown in French schools as part of an educational program. After completing Girlhood, a film aiming to showcase the stories of black teenagers that are fundamentally underrepresented in French film, in 2014, Sciamma revealed that she would no longer create coming-of-age movies, viewing Water Lilies, Tomboy and Girlhood as a trilogy. In 2018, she shot Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a queer period drama following the love between an artist and her muse. This may be her most popular and film yet, winning Best Screenplay at Cannes and becoming the second best-reviewed film of 2019.

"I am a screenwriter because I like asking myself questions about who I am."

Celine Sciamma insists on desire in her writing. In fact, she centers her entire writing process around it. She writes 2 lists when she starts working on a film. One is a very free list of ideas including lines of dialogue and ideas for scenes. For example, this list would incorporate the following scenes and quotes from Portrait of a Lady on Fire: ‘two girls run fast to the edge of a cliff’, ‘an abortion being painted’ and “Don’t forget, remember.”. The snippets must have a crucial point of impact and Sciamma must be passionately definite about their inclusion in the film. On the other side, the second list is a necessary one. The snippets that build up this list are logically crucial for the film and are the simple scenes to write. Sciamma's writing process is ultimately joining the "necessary" parts from the second list to the first list. It is all about making every single moment of the film desirable. Her rule is that not a single scene or idea must remain in this logical list before she starts writing the screenplay. She claims that cutting scenes without desire allows a writer to be far more experimental, encouraging the filmmaker to be brave, bold and escape convention. Therefore, character design is not a part of Sciamma's writing process. She has been adamant that she doesn’t think of them outside of the scenes that they are in since they are not people - they are fictional and functional for the film. They don’t have futures or surnames. Sciamma only focuses on their desires and how they weave into the pace and the rhythms that she wants to create in the film.

“Women have been objectified by fiction and patriarchy throughout history so giving back their subjectivity is giving back their desires.”

For Sciamma, writing Portrait of a Lady on Fire was all about writing a love story based on equality. She ensured that there was no difference in gender, no intellectual domination and no playing with social hierarchy. But, a lack of such conflict in the film does not result in a lack of tension. Undeniably, the subtle and yet jaw-dropping passion in the film generates a vital, electric tension with the audience. One moment that elevates such tension is the first kiss (see video below). For this, Sciamma aimed to write a scene that would embody the sexiness of consent, incorporating the scarves to illuminate this. Hence, Peter Debrudge has described that "Though this gorgeous, slow-burn lesbian romance works strongly enough on a surface level, one can hardly ignore the fact, as true then as it is now, that the world looks different when seen through a woman's eyes", describing the film as "rigorously scripted", and her approach "looking past surfaces in an attempt to capture deeper emotion".

Sciamma's writing stems from purpose. She has specific aims with every scene and isn't afraid to be analytical. She answers every single question that she can come up with in relation to how the scene will play out even before she starts writing the dialogue. For example, in scenes set in the kitchen in Portrait, she considers what plates will be seen in the background, what wine they will be drinking, how their hair will be tied up and what position they will be sitting in. Everything is meticulously thought about in relation to what will create the most tension. She is actively radical and this is why her films are the perfect escape.