Retrato de una mujer en llamas

Whole movie is a piece of art. The development of the action is slow, as is the painting process. As with the picture, this film takes shape towards the end. It's a movie about love between a painter and her muse. I loved how much the gaze meant in this film. Citing the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is not accidental. This outlines the characters. Marianne as Orpheus makes the decision of the poet, she chose a memory of Héloise. She goes to the Opera to see her beloved. She states that Héloise has not seen her. I think Héloïse felt her presence, but she did not look around, she makes a lover's decision.

To understand the beauty of that movie, you need to watch it. It might be boring film in the beginning, but it shows how real is it. Beautiful scenes, shots. I loved the landscape of the sea. The best part of it is also how art connects with the whole plot, story. There is no background soundtrack. The music becomes an important part of the story. Speaking about melodies and painting, two main characters are in fact speaking about themself. Héloise asks Marianne when she knows that she finished the painting, Marianne answers it and the same talks about their relation. There are many details that makes that movie even more beautiful.

All I can say about this movie is that it is beautiful. From the cinematography to the soundtrack to the acting everything about the movie is perfectly executed creating an emotionally connected experience for the viewer. If you have not yet seen this movie I recommend that you put it at the top of your to watch list because it's what I believe to be one of the best movies of 2019

The acting by the two principle actresses in this movie is first-rate. The direction, though it moves slowly, is very good.

But what made this movie remarkable for me was the cinematography. The most striking scenes feature the blonde character walking along the shore against a relatively light-blue sea. You have to see it to experience how beautiful those scenes are.

But some of the interior scenes have face lighting that will make you think of Rembrandt. (The movie is about a painter, so it's not surprising that the lighting of faces should be very important.)

There are other scenes where you have one deep red dress against a white background, again to very striking effect.

I just saw this movie in France, so with neither dubbing nor subtitles. I don't know how it will work with either of them.

But if you can understand the language - which is very clear, very classic standard French with little background noise behind it - you will discover a remarkable study of two women photographed in a truly astounding manner.

"When you asked if I had known love. I could tell the answer was yes. And that it was now. "Marianne (Noemie Merlant)

No art form has struggled more to get the depiction of love just right than film. Portrait of a Lady on Fire gets it almost perfect, and it's Sapphic! All you modest types don't need to worry-writer director Celine Siamma stresses the longing and the dance of love much more than its physicality. Two young women spend most of this beautiful romance just getting to the first dance, and the journey is as exciting and anguishing as it was for us in those early years of exploring.

Late 18th century Marianne has been hired to paint young Heloise (Adele Haenel) for her wedding portrait. Not that you can't guess what is going to happen while the first portrait is being painted, but the film languishes long and deep on the glances between these two potential lovers. Those gazes encapsulate the truth of their affections and the high-mindedness of their intentions.

Perhaps the business of painting lends the ethereal quality to their love, which is born of the imagination and fleetingly put on canvas forever. It's just that the slow, loving pace of the camera and the conceit lend a mystery (Will they connect?) and a sweetness (how transforming love can be from a scowl to a smile).

The cinematography, especially of the rugged cliffs and the sea, is well-aligned with the power and danger of their tender love. Not even mother's (Valeira Golino) affection for her remote daughter pales next to the burgeoning passion of the leads.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire fiercely speaks to the fire, conventional or not, that can burn in all of us. Leave it to film to bring out the love in our hearts.

"To love pure and chaste from afar." Man of La Mancha

I haven't written a review in a while because frankly there haven't been too many great movies in recent years to warrant any. But then I watched Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, and found it so revelatory and refreshing that I thought I would add my dollop of daisy to the ocean of praise this film has rightfully been getting.

The film is about a love affair between a painter and her subject, both women, and in a sense it is as simple as that. There is a backdrop of male dominance overhanging the period in which the story is set - the film contains few men, and when they are seen, they appear as benevolent figures. But repression pervades each scene - the subject of the painting is an aristocratic woman who is on her way to be married, and yet she isn't thrilled at the prospect and she might not have a choice in the matter. The painter, a young woman, at the end of the film displays her work under the name of her father, unable to present her work under her own name. So the specter of control is injected throughout, although this theme is only hinted at. This subtle touch gives the film an essential underpinning to what is otherwise a beautiful love story.

Some thoughts about the film-making. First: what a beautiful thing to behold. Such refined artistry is a rarity in the days of quick-consumption digital, and it goes to show how the technicians that work behind the camera are as important as what is happening on screen. Each frame is a thing of aesthetic delight, of color coordination, of subtle lighting and design elements all married into a whole. The fact that it was shot in digital rather than a traditional film look for a period piece somehow heightens and modernizes the proceedings in a way that made its most visual moments feel fresh and completely new.

Second, the respect for the audience, to not settle for petty narrative cliches when there were so many opportunities in this story to resort to them. It is one of these very pure and true stories, told with love and respect for the characters as well as those watching them breathe, yet we keep waiting for a moment of emotional violence between the main players, which doesn't occur. When I became aware of how delicate this story was as it unfolded to its end, I was moved to my core.

This is a revolutionary and passionate film on many levels, and I believe those who have seen it can only attest to that. It kind of defies criticism beyond that fact.