Review of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) by Keithdow — 18 Mar 2020

Nearly every scene in Céline Sciamma’s ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ can be frozen in time, mounted on canvas, and hung on a wall for display. There’s a deep, rich luxuriousness to the film, from the cinematography to the acting to the story itself, making it ever so deserving of winning the Queer Palm and Best Screenplay award at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

The ethereal, hovering camera work evokes the essence of a Terrance Malick film. Considering Sciamma both wrote and directed ‘Portrait,’ her budding career shows no less promise.

Noémie Merlant plays protagonist Marianne, an artist tasked with painting the wedding portrait of Héloïse, played by Adèle Haenel. Héloïse mustn’t know Marianne’s true intentions as the bride-to-be is emotionally fraught, having suffered through the recent suicide of her sister along with a stint in a convent. The notion of being married off to some Milanese nobleman in a sudden and emotionless marriage may simply be too much to bear.

As the cat-and-mouse interplay unfolds, Marianne and Héloïse bond, creating an emotional connection flecked with romantic leanings. It’s within this raw passionate atmosphere that the story lingers, offering the audience a meditative mood piece that draws our own emotions into a deep, sensory-rich trance.

Though the pacing of ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ is slow, it is necessary to achieve the hypnotic nature of the film. In capturing this deliberate rhythm, which is essential to the period and plot, Sciamma is able to fully realize the lingering memory of lovers long past into something vibrantly and excitingly new.