The oval portrait is a frame narrative film about an injured narrator who finds shelter in an abandoned Italian chateau, discovers a disturbingly lifelike painting and reads its tragic backstory of a bride consumed by her husband’s obsessive art.
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A wounded and delirious narrator, accompanied by his servant Pedro, forces entry into an abandoned, gloomy chateau in the Apennine mountains to rest for the night. Settling in a small turret room filled with art, the narrator adjusts his candle and suddenly notices a previously unseen oval portrait of a young woman. The absolute lifelikeness of the painting startles and captivates him for a full hour. He finds a small book on his pillow that explains the history of each painting.
The book reveals that the portrait depicts a young maiden of rare beauty who loved and married an eccentric, talented painter. The painter was already deeply obsessed with his craft, treating his art as a rival to his wife. He eventually asked her to sit for a portrait, which she reluctantly accepted only to please him.
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As the weeks passed in the dark turret, the painter grew more and more absorbed in his work, pouring his wife’s actual life force and color from her cheeks onto the canvas. He refused to look away from the canvas even to look at her. When he finally applied the last stroke and cried, “This is indeed life itself!” He turned to look at his bride and realized she had died in the chair.
Directed by: Adrian Langley
Cast: Michael Swatton, Prague Shail, Paul Thomas, Louisa Capulet, Simon Phillips
Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes
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