#1034: SCIAMMA, Céline: Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019)

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SCIAMMA, Céline (France)
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire [2019]
Spine #1034
Blu-ray


Passion brews quietly between an artist and her subject, until together they create a space in which it can briefly flourish, in this sumptuous eighteenth-century romance from Céline Sciamma, one of contemporary French cinema's most acclaimed auteurs. Summoned to an isolated seaside estate on a secret assignment, Marianne (Noémie Merlant) must find a way to paint a wedding portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), who is resisting chattel marriage, by furtively observing her. What unfolds in exquisite tension is an exchange of sustained gazes in which the two women come to know each other's gestures, expressions, and bodies with rapturous intimacy, ultimately forging a subversive creative collaboration as well as a delirious romance. Charged with a yearning that almost transcends time and space, Portrait of a Lady on Fire mines the emotional and artistic possibilities that emerge when women can freely live together and see one another in a world without men.

121 minutes
Color
5.1 Surround
in French
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2020
Director/Writer


Céline Sciamma was 39 when she wrote and directed Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Other Sciamma films in the Collection:

#1181: Petite maman (2021)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

 The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by film critic Ela Bittencourt.

Commentary

None.

Conversation

Between director Sciamma and film critic Dana Stevens.

Interviews

With actors Haenel and Merlant.

Interview 1

With DP Claire Mathon from the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

Interview 2

From 2019 with artist Hélène Delmaire on creating the paintings for the film.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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