Review: Blazingly intelligent ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ is one of 2019’s great love stories
LA TimesAn exquisitely realized story about forbidden love, forgotten art and the implicit power of a woman’s gaze, Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” shares its title with a painting by an 18th century Parisian named Marianne. Some in the audience may watch Héloïse and be reminded of the ghostly Carlotta Valdes in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”; later, as she and Marianne lower their guards, they can’t help but evoke the leads of Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona.” Others may find themselves reaching for that oft-abused but sometimes unavoidable word, “painterly,” to describe the exquisite stillness and compositional elegance of the images. It is also a place where an impossible love can take unhindered root, as Héloïse and Marianne’s rhetorical thrusts and parries naturally give way to murmured endearments and ardent embraces. In an interview at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where she received the jury prize for best screenplay, Sciamma described “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” as “a love story with equality.” There are many ways to think about equality, and you are likely to come away from this movie feeling that the filmmaker has given each of them her full consideration.