Review | ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’

After contemporary coming-of-age themes, delivered with her own understated style, French writer-director Céline Sciamma (Water Lilies, Girlhood) journeyed to another time and place for her brilliant latest film, awarded as Best Screenplay at Cannes. In France circa the late 18^th century, artist Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is hired to paint a wedding portrait of a beautiful aristocrat fresh out of the convent, Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). It’s a simple narrative structure yielding surprisingly rich and moving results, with unabashed feminist overtones. Key scenes include a telling image Héloïse with her dress on fire — prescient of love and fates to come — an abortion scene with the patient lying next to a baby, and a tragically doomed love theme linked to Eurydice. Portrait is a quiet, slow-brewing and uniquely sensual film, spare and minimalist but never cool to the touch. It’s also rare story about the art of painting, detailing the art-making process, marked by prolonged gazing and ultimately meeting of artist-subject, turned intimate and sexual. Early in their relationship, Héloïse asks her lover “Do all lovers think they’re inventing something?” With Portrait, Sciamma has invented a fine and subtle portrait of taboo love.