PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE – Review

Waves roll up onto the shore. It’s a beautiful sight if the waves weren’t inviting the woman on the edge of the cliff to jump out and end her torment. The fear of being stuck in a loveless marriage, or even worse, unable to fulfill your own desires and dreams looms over the waves below. The woman doesn’t see a way out, that is until a stranger enters her life, calling her back with just a stare. The stranger watches her, staring at her beauty and air of sadness.

Like the slow and steady waves meeting the shore, writer and director Céline Sciamma has crafted a tale that slowly washes over viewers, evoking the tragic romanticism of Kate Chopin’s searing novel THE AWAKENING. Instead of painting in broad strokes, Sciamma meticulously captures forbidden love through two pairs of eyes that say so much through just a series of looks. The haunting beauty of PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE solidifies Céline Sciamma as one of the most exciting filmmakers working in the world today. 

It’s the story of a young artist named Marianne who is hired by a French countess to paint a wedding portrait of her daughter, Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent. Furthermore, the reluctant bride-to-be has never met the man to whom she is betrothed. Marianne arrives under the guise of companionship, observing Héloïse by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As their relationship develops, the portrait soon becomes a collaborative act and a testament to their love of one another.

The heartfelt performances from Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haene begin as a simple game of who will outlast the other. One has a job to do while the other is counting her remaining days of freedom. Even as they attempt to restrain it, their mutual attraction and chemistry are incredibly palpable. It’s a romance for the ages that slowly builds until the intimacy and attraction reach a boiling point – symbolizing Héloïse’s first moments of freedom and providing her a taste of how sweet life could be without the expectations and judgment of the outside world.

It’s a romance centered around knocking down the walls they’ve put around themselves. You can see the years of biting their tongue in their eyes. So much of the film is about what’s not said – those emotions that defy reason or explanation as well as that passion they are trying to subside. Each scene finds the two of them slowly becoming more vulnerable, unlearning the rules of what is to be expected of a woman. As the title states, a small fire is burning inside Héloïse and it’s Marianne who encourages her to not suppress it anymore.

Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel turn the subtle act of being vulnerable into an engrossing and thrilling act of rebellion. They have delivered two of the most breathtaking and elegant performances of the year. Céline Sciamma’s film is about more than the act of creating art; it’s about the creation of something beautiful, something so timeless that it transcends the period garb and the 18th-century setting and speaks to our modern times. In the end, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE is one of the greatest love stories ever told and serves as a reminder to audiences why we love to go to the theater in the first place: to watch art unfold before our eyes and have an unspoken dialogue with it as we stare at its beauty.

Overall score: 4 out of 4

PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE opens in St. Louis at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and Tivoli Theatre on Friday, March 6.