Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), written and
directed by Céline Sciamma.
What is it about?
Portrait of a Lady on Fire takes place in the late 18th
century. An artist, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), is sent to an island in France
to paint a portrait of the countess’ (Valeria Golino) last surviving daughter. Marianne
has her work cut out for her as the daughter, Héloïse
(Adèle Haenel) has refused to pose for artists in the past, and Marianne plans
to complete the portrait in secret. As Marianne spends time with Héloïse and attempts
to make a portrait of her without her knowing it, the island’s remote setting
provides a backdrop for the ladies finding muses of inspiration in each other
that they never saw coming.
Why is it worth seeing?
It’s easy to point out the dismal state of American studio romances currently, and comparing writer/director Céline Sciamma’s 4th film to them not only feels unfair (to the competition), it takes away from how powerfully singular Portrait is. It’s no simple Trompei Loeil to make something so captivatingly swollen with passion.
It’s safe to say that Sciamma has good taste- she herself at one point dated French actress Adèle Haenel, and between Haenel and Noémie Merlant, as the key protagonists thrust together for a brief sojourn of time on an isolated island, they provide a plethora of terroir ocular delights to feast upon while acting slightly off putting- is there anything more quintessentially French? In terms of cuisine for the eyes, it’s a feast.
As the characters start the process of their delicious encounter, filled with enticing glances, intoxicating stares, and embarrassed look-aways when caught, Sciamma’s narrative macguffin of an artist observing their subject starts to reverse itself, a case of the observer being observed, through scenes of hypnotic rawness, both at the hunter becoming the hunted, and the id leaping in front of superego. It’s a delirious phenomenon, in that the film moves along at a leisurely pace, cut often with breathtaking out of control moments that feel like a sprint. It’s telling that a film with so much dedication to realism features several fantasy sequences.
Sciamma’s dialogue (winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival) has a sense of authenticity, and supports a film featuring no actual sex to be sexy, with words more naked than the characters could ever hope to get. Being a period piece, there are mentions of the sociological implications of the time, with the arranged marriages, barbaric medical practices, and inability for women artists to paint male subjects, but those realities are background to a foreground that constantly has the sound of a crackling fire within it. Similar to the ending to Martin Scorcese’s Silence, everything burns with a poetic irony in this movie- and you will too.
As Marianne goes through her artistic process of rendering her subject, through observing, sketching, modelling, underpainting, and painting, she builds a portrait that with each attempt gets closer to the heart of her subject, sharpening and refining the artistic process to portray reality as it actually is, the 2 characters defining themselves through choices and enduring consequence. This is one of the best movies of 2019- take note studios.
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