Un portrait

Paris, 1621. Franz Pourbus, master painter, charges his most talented pupil with the commission to paint the portrait of the Spanish Infante Marguerite Eleonor. The young painter has to paint the young princess in circumstances that are anything but relaxed: etiquette does not allow direct communication between the artist and the royal sitter, and there is always a courtier present, as well as the princess's lady-in-waiting. The tension that builds up between the two young people, as the portrait takes shape over the course of two--beautifully timed--weeks, revolves around the young girl's unease at being portraited by the painter, and the painter's difficulties in trying to express in paint the character and soul of a sitter with whom he can only communicate through the eyes.

The film was shot in the authentic Renaissance setting of the Castle of Gaasbeek, near Brussels in present-day Belgium. The light used is simply stunning. It made me think how much film making has evolved since Kubrick's revolutionary lighting in 'Barry Lyndon'(1975): I have always had doubts about the alleged naturalness of the lighting in that film. No such doubts for 'Le Portrait'.