Review of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) by Sierra-117 — 06 Mar 2020

Portrait of a lady on fire is a French romance/historical drama from the capable hands of Céline Sciamma, who crafts this meticulous, tantalizing tale of an artist who falls in love with the woman she is assigned to paint.

Unlike the typical romance, the film takes a more gradual approach to building a dynamic between each of the characters, which ultimately makes the events that follow all the more meaningful. In Some ways you could say it’s the polar opposite to a romance like James Cameron’s Titanic, which I’ll have you know I’m not especially fond of.

This is because in my opinion it (Titanic) rushes the development of the protagonists’ relationship in order to create an illusion of ‘Star crosses lovers’ . In some instances I don’t mind this, such as when used in Romcoms, but in the case of a serious film like Titanic I believe it is extremely out of place.

This is one of the reasons why I enjoyed Portrait of a Lady on Fire so much. Rather than rush into the romantic elements, it demands your patience, which in turn is rewarded to a satisfactory extent. One of the ways that Sciamma builds tension between Noémie Merlant’s ‘Marianne’ and Adèle Haenel’s ‘Héloïse’, is that during moments of interest she tends to linger on each of their faces, long enough for the average viewer to decipher their emotions and watch how they alter after certain changes.

Of course this does almost entirely depend on the cast’s ability to display said emotions, and fortunately each actress plays their part beautifully. The cinematography is also incredible, with some absolutely stunning shots of vastly different scenery, and although music is used sparingly, when it’s utilized it perfectly contributes to the atmosphere.

My one small gripe with this film is that often there is a meaningful scene that feels hastily cut off in order to continue with the plot. Although many people won’t mind this I would’ve personally preferred if they had lasted a tad longer.