Portrait of a Lady on Fire

As the credits began to roll on Portrait of a Lady on Fire, I was practically incapable of moving or speaking. Every time I didnt think the film could possibly get any better, Céline Sciamma elevated it to even greater, more incomprehensible heights, culminating in one of the most extraordinary moments in 21st-century cinema. This is a rare and precious film, breathtaking in its craft and intensely honest in its passions. This is a film that aches, that longs, that dances in ecstasy and raises its hands to the sky, angelic and ferocious and perfect. Simply put, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a masterpiece, and one of the best films of this or any year.

• Daniel Lammin

Read Daniel's full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/articl...

The best LGBT movie ever. And that's on period luv.

Céline Sciamma, writer and director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, calls her period film a manifesto on the male gaze. This is the most accurate, elegant description of her story of a romance between two French women in the late 1700s. This is an impeccably detailed, beautifully acted, refined drama with a strong feminist angle thats as stirring as it is thought-provoking.

Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), a young woman who has just left the convent. Because Héloïse is a very reluctant bride-to-be, Marianne arrives under the guise of companionship, observing the smallest of details about the woman by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As the two women spen...

Undoubtedly worth a watch; who knew portraits were the Tinder of the 1700s.

Full review: <a>https://www.tinakakadelis.com/beyond-the-cinerama-dome/2021/12/28/paint-me-like-one-of-your-french-girls-portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-review<a>

Celine Sciammas fourth feature film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, is a triumph. Few romance movies capture the totality of love, loss, and remembrance in the way Sciamma does in this film. The story is simple: Marianne (Noémie Merlant) has been hired to paint a portrait of Heloise (Adèle Haenel) to be sent to the Milanese nobleman she is to marry. He will not marry her until he sees what she looks like. Other artists have tried and failed to paint Heloise, but she has resisted because she doesnt want to be married. Marianne pretends to be Heloises walking companion, all the while s...