Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu (2019)
Genre: Drama / Romance
Duration: 120 minuten
Alternative title: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Country:
France
Directed by: Céline Sciamma
Stars: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel and Luàna Bajrami
IMDb score:
8,0 (128.020)
Releasedate: 18 September 2019
Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu plot
"Don't regret. Remember."
France, the eighteenth century. The young artist Marianne is appointed to create a wedding portrait of Héloïse unbeknownst to her. For this, Marianne must carefully observe the woman in daylight so that she can paint the portrait at night. During these days, the women grow closer, while Héloïse experiences her last moments of freedom before swearing eternal loyalty to her husband.
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Actors and actresses
Marianne
Héloïse
Sophie
The Countess
The Angel Maker
The Workshop Student
The Lounge Man
The Boatman
Peasant Woman (uncredited)
Peasant Woman (uncredited)
Reviews & comments
yeyo
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- 6366 messages
- 4666 votes
How cool of lesbootje Sciamma that she just makes a film without manvolk. That certainly deserves a thumbs up! And of course the ladies gradually perform a clandestine abortion, how progressive we are. Very schematic is how each character is instrumentalized into A Great Feminist Question, but even more annoying is the ostentatious way in which Sciamma addresses her theme of 'elusive desire'. Notions such as 'falling in love with an idealized image of the other' are treated in such a clichéd and unnecessarily explicit way that the whole thing comes across as a toddler version of La Belle Noiseuse. The scene where the characters walk very weightily about Orpheus and Eurydice is almost reminiscent of a school television broadcast for disadvantaged French children. The so-called 'austere' mise en scene bursts open like a festering pimple through that swollen symbolism. Besides, what a blood irritating bitch that Haenel. This movie reminded me that I find plump-lipped white women very distasteful. Merlant may be there, but that's about all.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Woland
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- 4831 messages
- 3875 votes
I didn't get this one in the cinema last year, but now that it's been raining for a day and I'm slightly groggy on the couch, I thought it was worth a try, given all the positive stories. As can be seen from the number of stars, the attempt did not go well.
To start on a positive note - the film really does look like a picture. Many beautiful images, in which Haenel and Merlant also show themselves from their good side. They can certainly act. But that's where it ended for me. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is an excruciatingly slow costume drama, in which a minimal plot is stretched out over more than two hours, and meaningful Silences fall for a film, we see Merlant painting for minutes, and the ladies have deadly boring conversations with each other. With a tempo of one sentence per minute, because each sentence is followed by a disturbingly long silence that perhaps should suggest depth, but above all took every tempo out of the film. And although this is a love story, I thought it was all filmed very distantly - stylish and beautiful perhaps, but also very stiff. The subtle way in which Sciamma prominently portrays the title several times (even in the first few minutes) and in which the Orpheus legend comes through not once, but even twice, didn't help in my rating either. Fortunately, in the second half, the film started to show a little more emotion and actually became interesting at times, but all in all this was not easy for me.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Filmkriebel
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- 10133 messages
- 4740 votes
This melodrama is about the fiery but short-lived love between a painter and her model. The pace is slow, but I didn't find it boring. The emotional play of observation and the silent way in which the feelings of both women come about even make it a little exciting.
It is also a tragic love story after that in the sense that this love will never bloom. The motif of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is used several times to capture that tragedy (the white glimpse Marianne catches of Héloïse and then disappears).
Some mystical images are also used, such as Heloïse's cloth that catches fire in a moment of timelessness. An image that is indeed worth a painting.
Yes, it's done nicely in some scenes and as an arthouse movie this is one that I think is a bit more accessible to a wider audience. Too bad about the very slow build-up in the beginning and all the scenes with the maid Sophie with her abortion, I didn't really add anything. Superb role of Haenel also where she exhibits a very powerful almost holy appearance, but her character was initially intended for the monastery. Slightly 3.5*
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