Portrait de la jeune fille en feu

Amazing cinematography and acting! Beautiful film! Minimal dialogue made up for with major body language and emotional expression.

For starters, I can't possibly understand the lack of Oscar nominations for this movie. One of the best movies of the year, not only foreign. The acting is superb and would put Merlant (or even Haenel) instead of Charlize Theron for example. The cinematography is breathtaking, the shots are long and so beautiful put. It's such a smooth transition between the characters and the plot with such attention to detail. Really gorgeous and it locks your eyes on screen and the end... jesus christ, emotions running high. Really recommend it!

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

"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