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Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Portrait de la jeune fille en feu

2019

Céline Sciamma

Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino ...

7.4

14,438

Drama. Romance France, 1770. Painter Marianne is commissioned by a countess to paint the wedding portrait of her daughter Héloïse. While posing as her hired companion, Marianne is instructed to complete the portrait in secret. However, intimacy and attraction begin to blossom between both women.

	Media	Author	Review
		Leslie Felperin The Hollywood Reporter	"An exquisitely executed love story that's both formally adventurous and emotionally devastating (...) It's so good you'll want to watch again in slow-motion immediately afterwards"
		Peter Debruge Variety	"This gorgeous, slow-burn lesbian romance works strongly enough on a surface leve (...) [Sciamma] is right to trust the chemistry of her lead actresses"
		David Ehrlich IndieWire	"[A] devastatingly unforgettable story of love and memory (...) An unforgettable film that cooks at a low simmer until going incandescent in its closing minutes."
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"In her hypnotic and haunting film, alive with humor, heartbreak and swooning sensuality, Sciamma has created nothing less than a timeless work of art (...) Rating: ★★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Ben Croll The Wrap	"[A] piercingly intelligent treatise on art, agency and queer love in the 18th century"
		Richard Lawson Vanity Fair	"In Sciamma’s gifted hands, the film escapes cliché and becomes something glorious (...) The film’s ideas (...) are acutely felt, and Sciamma ends on an epilogue of sorts that is shattering."
		Michelle Jaworski The Daily Dot	"Sciamma’s period romance reels you in and never lets you go (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Wendy Ide Screendaily	"Entirely female-led cinema is still enough of a novelty for this to add appeal to an already attractive package (...) It won’t hurt that this is a strikingly handsome production which will be admired on a technical level."
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"[This] gripping 18th-century story of obsession demonstrates a new mastery of classical style(…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Tim Robey Telegraph	"Sciamma’s splendid, multi-layered conceit manages to carry equal weight as a love story and a manifesto of sorts for feminine art (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Sophie Monks Kaufman Empire	"There are theme-park rides; there is cinema; there are sacred love poems to take with you for the rest of your life. Thank you for giving us the last one, Céline Sciamma (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Clarisse Loughrey The Independent	"Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant carry the film with ease (...) Sciamma’s gorgeous romantic film concerns itself almost entirely with the unseen powers of the gaze (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Fabien Lemercier Cineuropa	"The film moves at its own pace, subtly tracing the trajectory of the birth and the fear of desire (...) before its final eruption (beautifully sensual and relatively modest), and providing these two lead actresses with exceptional roles"

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Portrait of a Lady on Fire

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