Set against the backdrop of 18th-century Brittany, a forbidden love stirs between two young women, a painter and her reluctant subject. Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned to paint Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) the beautiful daughter of a noblewoman. Upon her arrival, Marianne discovers that the previous artist failed, and that Héloïse refuses to pose in protest of being showcased for an unwanted marriage. Ostensibly hired as a ladies’ companion, Marianne takes daily walks with Héloïse, observing her closely yet discreetly, without letting on she’s secretly working on a portrait when they’re apart. As she struggles to make progress on the painting, she finds herself growing more and more attracted to Héloïse.
Made in an elegantly classical style, director Céline Sciamma’s (Girlhood; Petite Maman) romance turns into a remarkable work of suspense, as tension slowly builds over transient glances and pauses — rendered beautifully by Merlant and Haenel’s passionate performances. The deeper they fall in love, the closer Héloïse’s impending loss of freedom looms in this tragic drama about imposed social limitations on what we can create, how we can live, and who we can love.
When Sight & Sound magazine unveiled their 2022 Greatest Films poll of academics and scholars, Portrait of a Lady on Fire was the highest new entry in the list, coming in at #30.
Sunday’s Pantheon screening will feature a 20-minute introduction and talkback.
A devastatingly unforgettable story of love and memory [[…] Razor-sharp and shatteringly romantic […] A profoundly tender story about the process of self-discovery and becoming. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a period romance that’s traditional in some ways, progressive in others, and altogether so damn true that it might feel more like staring into a mirror than it does running your eyes over a canvas. The film expresses that discovery as vividly as any that’s ever been made, as the drama’s spartan backdrop only adds to the intensity of its blaze. An unforgettable film that cooks at a low simmer until going incandescent in its closing minutes.
David Ehrlich, Indiewire
An exquisitely executed love story that’s both formally adventurous and emotionally devastating… It’s so good you’ll want to watch again in slow-motion immediately afterwards just to see how she does it. […] Not a moment in this film is wasted, which suits a story about lovers without a moment to lose.
Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter
Portrait of a Lady on Fire demonstrates Sciamma’s ability to make a timelessly beautiful film that also crystallises the gender politics of her era.
Ginette Vincendeau, Sight & Sound
Céline Sciamma
Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luana Bajrami, Valeria Golina
France
2019
In French with English subtitles
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Screenwriter
Céline Sciamma
Cinematography
Claire Mathon
Editor
Julien Lacheray
Original Music
Jean-Baptiste de Laubier, Arthur Simonini
Production Design
Thomas Grézaud
Also in This Series
Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise)
The crowning glory of classical French cinema, this sumptuous melodrama brings to life the early 19th century Boulevard du Crime in Paris, where popular audiences for mime shows and carnival rub shoulders with wealthy patrons of classical theatre.
The Wild Bunch (Director's Cut)
The Mexico/Texas borderlands, 1913: Pike (William Holden) leads his gang of aging outlaws on a foray south for one last hurrah. Peckinpah's masterpiece, a savage lament for men who believe in nothing but find respect by dying in vain.
The Ascent
During the darkest winter of WWII, two Soviet partisans venture through the backwoods of Belarus in search of food, always at risk of falling into enemy hands. In her masterpiece Larisa Shepitko zeroes in on profound spiritual and philosophical themes.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Céline Sciamma's queer costume drama -- about a painter covertly studying a young noblewoman who refuses to sit for her portrait -- was voted 30th Greatest Film Ever Made in a 2022 poll, the highest ranking film of the past decade.
I Am Cuba
Infused with a palpable love for the country and a righteous anger at the injustices of the Batista era, I Am Cuba features some of the jaw-dropping camerawork ever filmed. A euphoric celebration of Cuba, the Revolution, and revolutionary cinema.
The Colour of Pomegranates + The House Is Black
This month's Pantheon screening is a double-bill, Sergei Parajanov's extraordinary evocation of the life and work of C18th Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and, The House is Black (22 min), the only film directed by the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.