Now we see Héloïse as Marianne sees her: someone to be both loved and captured at the same time. But when Haenel reaches the edge, she whirls around to face us, allowing the first proper glimpse of her face. We already know her sister potentially committed suicide in the same way, so there's fear in the air. The character's entrance is the stuff of legend: shot from behind, hooded cloak obscuring her mop of blond hair, she sprints outside toward the cliff's edge. But Haenel, incidentally Sciamma's former partner, has the showier role, giving her lines a halting sense of both discovery and dread. Its distributor, Neon, is giving it a one-week limited release in New York and Los Angeles for awards contention, followed by a nationwide expansion for Valentine's Day 2020 - fitting, since the heroines of this story only get a few days together before being forced to go their separate ways.īoth performances are haunting in that understated way that rarely wins awards even their showdown over the reveal of the painting is quiet. The film is a love story between two women, but also between an artist and her subject/muse, and between the dreamer and the dreamed-of. It's a relic out of time, creating a lush, erotic world out of glances and small movements yet it's also very much of our time.
#Portrait of a lady on fire movie
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the new costume drama from French writer-director Céline Sciamma, is the kind of richly intoxicating movie that compels you to talk like this. Later, in secret, she will commit her memory of this face to the forbidden canvas - an act of love that isolates the lover.
![portrait of a lady on fire portrait of a lady on fire](https://video-images.vice.com/articles/5dd6ee97bc7ef90091b70461/lede/1574369593418-oportrait.jpeg)
And so the painter accompanies her subject on walks, gathering details of her face in furtive glimpses: the shape of her ears, the piercing stare of her eyes.
![portrait of a lady on fire portrait of a lady on fire](https://thereelbits.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/portrait-lady-posterAU.jpg)
Her portrait is intended for some faraway suitor, and she refuses to pose for it, because sealing her likeness in a frame is the first step toward sealing her entire self inside a loveless marriage.
![portrait of a lady on fire portrait of a lady on fire](https://www.thehollywoodnews.com/wp-content/uploads/Portrait-of-a-Lady-on-Fire_fire_1.jpg)
The woman must not know that she is being painted. Noémie Merlant (Marianne) and Adèle Haenel (Héloïse) turn the subtle act of looking into a dangerous, engrossing thrill, crafting the most breathtaking and elegant performances of the year.Winner of Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, Portrait of a Lady on Fire stars Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant. Intimacy and attraction grow between the two women as they share Héloïse’s first and last moments of freedom, all whilst Marianne paints the portrait that will end it all. She observes her by day and secretly paints her at night. Héloïse is a reluctant bride to be and Marianne must paint her without her knowing. Marianne, a painter, is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young lady who has just left the convent. A ravishing celebration of female passion and desire about a beautifully calibrated, incandescent romance between a painter and her subject.īrittany, France, 1760. To commemorate the release of director Céline Sciamma's Petite Maman, we are bringing this back to the big screen. "A ravishing celebration of female passion and desire" - Little White Lies "A film that truly earns the term exquisite" - Vanity Fair Golden Globe Nominee - Best Foreign Language Motion PictureĬannes Film Festival - Winner Best Screenplay & Queer Palm, and Palme d'Or nominee