Book Beach Bunny

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Directed By: Cèline Sciamma

I want to say right off the bat it took me about 30 minutes to get into this one. It’s beautiful throughout but there’s especially a dreaminess about the beginning and not much dialogue.

I suppose like a lot of relationships it really picks up when everyone starts talking to each other.

The movie starts with Marianne (Noemie Merlant) being tasked to secretively do a portrait of a young woman called Héloise- if her picture is liked by the possible groom well than Heloise (Adèle Haenel) will be married.

She’s already outlasted one artist hence the secrecy plus Marianne is coming into the after effects of a tragedy as this was all supposed to be Héloise’s sister only she drowned.

Once mother leaves Marianne gets a second chance to do the portrait as she wishes and she and Héloise spend time together and helping a young servant called Sophie (Luàna Bajrami) who needs to rid herself of an unwanted pregnancy a storyline that was a nice addition to the film.

The film is fantastically beautiful throughout and the parts are very well acted. I especially enjoyed how as time went on you could see a certain kind of domesticity these people are and would be happy together if not for the many, many restrictions society places upon them that won’t let them be.

I also really loved the myth retold during the film and how they relate it.

So besides the slow beginning I think the very, very end could have been a lot quicker but it’s a nitpick cause I’m only talking about the last five minutes or so.

To be completely honest one of the benefits of watching a subtitled film is I feel just a bit smarter at the end and this was a definite winner over all. 🙂

Recommend: Yes. Absolutely and it’s a good one to if you are only just trying to get into subtitled films.