Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Name: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
Released: December 6, 2019
Duration: 122 min
Rating: 95
Cast: Adele Haenel, Armande Boulanger, Cécile Morel, Christel Baras, Clément Bouyssou

2019

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 47 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 171 Ratings

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8.6

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8.6	Your Score
8.6	User Score Universal acclaim based on 171 Ratings

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Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

Movie Details & Credits

Alamode Film | Release Date: December 6, 2019 | R

Starring: Adele Haenel, Armande Boulanger, Cécile Morel, Christel Baras, Clément Bouyssou, Guy Delamarche, Luàna Bajrami, Michèle Clément, Noémie Merlant, Valeria Golino

Movie Facts:

Debuts 3/27 at 12am PST on Hulu.

Summary: France, 1760. Marianne is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent. Because she is a reluctant bride-to-be, Marianne arrives under the guise of companionship, observing Héloïse by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As the two women orbit one another, intimacy andFrance, 1760. Marianne is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent. Because she is a reluctant bride-to-be, Marianne arrives under the guise of companionship, observing Héloïse by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As the two women orbit one another, intimacy and attraction grow as they share Héloïse’s first moments of freedom. Héloïse's portrait soon becomes a collaborative act of and testament to their love. … Expand

Director: Céline Sciamma

Genre(s): Drama, History, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 122 min

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Awards & Rankings

2	#2 Best Movie of 2019
90	#90 Most Discussed Movie of 2019

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Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

Mark Kermode

Mar 1, 2020

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (the French title uses the less Jamesian “jeune fille”) seamlessly intertwines themes of love and politics, representation and reality. At times it plays like a breathless romance, trembling with passionate anticipation. Elsewhere, it seems closer to a sociopolitical treatise, what Sciamma has called “a manifesto about the female gaze”. Read full review

100

Joe Morgenstern

Dec 5, 2019

The prime mover is sexual tension, which grows inexorably as the women learn the contours of each other’s lives. Portrait of a Lady on Fire — the fire is figurative, but also real — goes beyond painterly beauty. It sees into souls. Read full review

100

David Ehrlich

May 19, 2019

Razor-sharp and shatteringly romantic ... as perfect a film as any to have premiered this year. Read full review

100

Bilge Ebiri

Feb 12, 2020

Portrait of a Lady on Fire builds and builds and builds, as we keep waiting for an explosion, a big emotional climax. And, not unlike with another great recent import, Pedro Almodóvar’s "Pain and Glory," it arrives with the very last shot — which I won’t reveal other than to say it’s one of the finest pieces of acting and one of the most moving images I’ve seen in eons. Read full review

Leah Greenblatt

Dec 7, 2019

There’s almost no single moment in Portrait of a Lady on Fire that couldn’t be captured, mounted, and hung on a wall as high art. That’s how visually ravishing it is to experience writer-director Céline Sciamma’s arthouse swoon of movie — winner of both the Queer Palm and Best Screenplay at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Read full review

Peter Debruge

May 20, 2019

Though this gorgeous, slow-burn lesbian romance works strongly enough on a surface level, one can hardly ignore the fact, as true then as it is now, that the world looks different when seen through a woman’s eyes. Read full review

Christopher Gray

Sep 5, 2019

What's most stirring about Céline Sciamma's film is the lack of artifice in Héloïse and Marianne's feelings for one another. Read full review

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User Reviews

uglyworldwide

Dec 7, 2019

this is nothing but pure art. every scene feels like they just cut from a novel.

8 of 12 users found this helpful84

Andremax

Feb 21, 2020

Portrait of a lady on fire is tender, beautiful, human and visually artistic

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

cinelez

Mar 7, 2020

A true masterpiece. Months after having seen it, i am still discovering symbolisms, hidden meanings and connotations. It's been decades that i'd watched a film multiple times. I think last time was mulholland drive or something. It breaks all conventions of modern cinematography. I highlyA true masterpiece. Months after having seen it, i am still discovering symbolisms, hidden meanings and connotations. It's been decades that i'd watched a film multiple times. I think last time was mulholland drive or something. It breaks all conventions of modern cinematography. I highly recommend it!… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

GuganSB

Dec 28, 2019

This movie itself a MOVING PAINTING!!!
You won't regret watching it. A True Classic. It deserves this praises.

5 of 7 users found this helpful52

Mayfieldja

Mar 18, 2020

Arguably the greatest romance film of the last 20 years. It's elegant, insanely intelligent, and expertly dives into themes that seem just as real today as they might have in the late 1800s. 9 out of 10

-SM

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

keanex

Feb 26, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I felt that the story of this movie was very expected, but the trajectory, emotion, and choice of words separated this from being a good movie, to a great one. It's a slow film of forbidden love, two women who know each other briefly for a period of time, but become floored by each other with an intense connection that they both will carry with them forever. Until the ending sequence I felt the movie was a 7.5, pushing an 8, but the last 15-30 minutes pushed it to an easy 9 for me. Very emotional and very very very well acted. The cinematography also needs to be praised, absolutely phenomenal. This was quite a movie.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

rossmalo

Feb 28, 2020

I find it dubious that there exist very few negative reviews for this film, as I would with any film. My concern has grown since going to watch it. I'm glad the masses found it enjoyable. I, unfortunately, find myself to be one of few (at least vocal) cinemagoers who did not like the film.I find it dubious that there exist very few negative reviews for this film, as I would with any film. My concern has grown since going to watch it. I'm glad the masses found it enjoyable. I, unfortunately, find myself to be one of few (at least vocal) cinemagoers who did not like the film. Leaving the cinema, I was offended. I felt gypped, cheated, mislead, though, happy to see the back of it. To evoke the saying "throw me a bone", this movie showed me its bones, one by one, placed them clumsily into its various pockets and tripped into the sea. I waited for this movie to give me anything, something I could leave with, something to shock me, something I haven't seen before. It gave me the latter, perhaps the most tedious, plodding, most unenjoyable cinema experience in recent memory. I found myself counting the seconds between each line of dialogue delivered. It was comical. I was grasping for threads to follow, themes of substance, anything, I was starving. Maybe that was the point, a realist approach, showing it as it were, I had surmised. I tossed and turned in this manner until I had no longer cared as to construe purpose in the film. Resorting to taking in the pretty pictures, I landed at the conclusion that this was what the film was, and just that. Just as I relaxed uncomfortably, a thought of Barry Lyndon came to my head. Perhaps this film excels at nothing.

As I do with any art related enterprise, I give props to the filmmakers for making art, participating in the craft, and for throwing in their two cents. Offended as I was by the lack of substance within the picture, they provided me with something to get passionate about, even if that may be the distaste for the picture itself. I see this picture called "The perfect film", to that I must conclude this is your first time, there's much more in store for you.… Expand

2 of 16 users found this helpful214

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