10s Movie Review - Portrait of a Lady On Fire

Director: Céline Sciamma
Genre: Drama/ Romance
Runtime: 121 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino

Description: On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter (Noémie Merlant) is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman (Adèle Haenel)

Review: In a big house on an island lives a young lady, who is married off to a rich guy in Milan. But he wants to inspect her first, without having to travel all that way. A painter is therefore commissioned to do a portrait of her. But here are obstacles. The young former nun doesn’t want to marry, just as her tragically deceased sister didn’t want to either. And a previous painter dropped out because she refused to pose. In other words, she must be painted in secret, and the artist must pose as her chaperone.
Men play no significant role in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”. They can be happy that their existence is acknowledged at all. And that is exactly what works out so beautifully. The focus is on four women in eighteenth-century Brittany: the bride-to-be Héloïse, the painter Marianna, the servant Sophie and, sparingly, the countess of Italian origin who commissions the portrait. The story is told mainly through the eyes of the artist. They are her memories.
As they walk the beach together, the artist tries to secretly observe her subject for a night painting. But her fleeting glances are answered. Even though all sorts of things seriously complicate their relationship, one thing is crystal clear from the very beginning: Marianne and Héloïse feel a connection. And it grows deeper and deeper over the course of the film. Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel splash off the screen, especially in the moments when they are together. Even when they barely exchange a word.  
“Portrait of a Lady On Fire” accepts some rigor from the costume drama, but never sees it as an end in itself. The characters are allowed to blossom and develop and behave like real people. In other words, there is not a constant politeness dictated by form, but an interaction between people who, however, could have been waling around today. Director Céline Sciamma has a talent for portraying young women in a way that everyone can identify with, even if they run into problems that men don’t know about.
“Portrait of a Lady On Fire” is a beautifully shot and well-crafted film.

Rating: 4, 5 / 5