Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Alamode Film | Release Date: December 6, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
95
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 48 Critic Reviews
Positive:
48
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New YorkerRichard BrodyAug 4, 2020
The movie dramatizes the constraints of the era, the imposition of a narrow and religion-based morality, the stern discipline that’s internalized as a result, the elision of women and their world from public life, and the firm expectations of family and society that Héloïse will endure in her unwanted marriage. Yet it does more than merely depict them—it embodies them, in the characters’ poised stillness, which makes the airy surroundings feel as rigid as stone. Read full review
100
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeMar 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
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldFeb 26, 2020
“Do all lovers,” wonders Héloïse in a passionate moment, “feel as though they’re inventing something?” Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a bittersweet celebration of passion and art, feels like that; you’ve never seen another movie quite like this. In its quiet gaze, love becomes art — and vice versa. Read full review
100
EmpireSophie Monks KaufmanFeb 24, 2020
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. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 19, 2020
Not much music finds its way on the soundtrack, but what’s there is crucial. Vivaldi’s “Violin Concerto in G Minor," heard twice and strategically, ends up crystallizing the love story in ways we don’t see coming. Read full review
100
VoxEmily Todd VanDerWerffFeb 13, 2020
What makes the French masterpiece Portrait of a Lady on Fire — one of my favorite movies ever made, and the perfect Valentine’s Day date movie — so good is that it’s both a great romance and a great love story. The two bleed into each other so skillfully that you’ll almost miss where the romance begins and the love story ends. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 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
100
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghFeb 12, 2020
It’s a film that gets brilliantly to the truth of how and why we fall in love, and replicates that sensation — and the heartache that follows. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 12, 2020
There are many great acting moments in this film, but you should especially savor the final shot, the long close-up of Haenel in profile. Put simply, it’s why we go to the movies. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 12, 2020
Céline Sciamma’s extraordinary fourth feature and a movie of body, heart, and mind. Read full review
100
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 6, 2019
Haenel, who also appeared in Sciamma’s debut film, Water Lilies, is mesmerizing, conjuring a full person using little more than stillness and a direct stare. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 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
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangDec 5, 2019
It’s the rare movie that can take something as ancient as myth and use it to break your heart anew. Read full review
100
The AtlanticDavid SimsDec 4, 2019
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is primarily a romance. But it’s also a film about the deeply personal process of creativity—the pain and joy of making one’s emotions and memories into a work of art. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyDec 4, 2019
It’s a delicate drama that flourishes through the liberating power of art, where a hopeful yet consuming love affair sparks between two young women amid patriarchal customs, and stays concealed in their hearts both because of and in spite of it. Read full review
100
ObserverOliver JonesDec 4, 2019
It also happens to be the best ending of a movie this year and the work of a filmmaker completely attuned to both her craft and the inner lives of her characters. Moreover, the shot is the final act of passion and precision in a film that is teeming with both, a work of art whose flame will continue to smolder in your mind and heart well after you have left the theater. Read full review
100
SlateDana StevensDec 2, 2019
Just like the short time the lovers have together, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is minimal but perfect, without an image, a glance, or a brushstroke to spare. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 10, 2019
Sharply subverting the male gaze at every turn, Sciamma has created an unforgettable treatise on thwarted desire. It is so very easy to label a film incendiary, but Portrait of a Lady on Fire deserves the scalding honour. It will ignite every flame you might have. Read full review
100
Time OutDave CalhounMay 28, 2019
It’s deeply romantic and also deeply thoughtful – an electric combination. Read full review
100
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 28, 2019
This radiantly sensual film ends on the perfect note, a rush of emotional intensity that’s wrapped in a secret, as hushed as the rustle of silk. Read full review
100
The Film StageLeonardo GoiMay 28, 2019
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a film of incandescent scenes and staggering wonder. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 20, 2019
A superbly elegant, enigmatic drama ... I was on the edge of my seat. Read full review
100
The PlaylistCaroline TsaiMay 20, 2019
Sciamma ... has a magnificent capability for elegant prose that wouldn’t feel out of place in a classic novel, the kind of dialogue that simmers long after it is spoken. Read full review
100
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 19, 2019
Razor-sharp and shatteringly romantic ... as perfect a film as any to have premiered this year. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinMay 19, 2019
Assaying [Sciamma's] first period film, an exquisitely executed love story that's both formally adventurous and emotionally devastating, she sticks the landing like a UCLA gymnast in peak condition. It's so good you'll want to watch again in slow-motion immediately afterwards just to see how she does it. Read full review
95
Vanity FairRichard LawsonMay 24, 2019
In Sciamma’s gifted hands, the film escapes cliché and becomes something glorious—a study of forbidden love that grandly highlights how much has been lost under the crush of hetero patriarchy. Read full review
94
PolygonKaren HanDec 7, 2019
The final shot of Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is overwhelming. It’s a culmination of the two hours that have preceded it, but it’s more than just the end of a movie. It’s an entire life cycle of a love affair. Read full review
91
UproxxVince ManciniFeb 17, 2020
Portrait of a Lady on Fire doesn’t shout at you. It whispers gently from the porch of another house, leaving its message to be carried on the breeze. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattDec 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
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 21, 2019
This is a quantum creative leap for Sciamma, herself a keen observer of behavior. (Her previous films, like Tomboy and Girlhood, were rich with character detail.) Time traveling to an old world seems to unlock the full scope of her passion and insight. Read full review
90
The VergeJoshua RiveraFeb 17, 2020
The conversations in Portrait of a Lady on Fire are among the most memorable people have had on a screen in some time, with each line a stanza in a poem, a reversal, a shift in perspective. With every exchange, the relationship between Marianne and Héloïse changes subtly. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 5, 2019
This is less a chronicle of forbidden desire than an examination of how desire works. Like a lost work of 18th-century literature, it is at once ardent and rigorous, passionate and philosophical. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 5, 2019
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is enthralling on every level. In her hypnotic and haunting film, alive with humor, heartbreak and swooning sensuality, Sciamma has created nothing less than a timeless work of art. Read full review
90
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 2, 2019
For an instant, I heard the rumble of the coming Revolution, and wondered how Sciamma would conclude her engrossing movie. In violent devastation, perhaps? Well, yes, but the violence is that of a storm-tossed heart, and the final shot is of a woman — I won’t reveal who — shaken by ungovernable sobs, with smiles breaking through like shafts of sunlight. Reckon you can weather all that without falling apart? Good luck. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 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
90
TheWrapBen CrollMay 19, 2019
Visually ravishing ... [A] piercingly intelligent treatise on art, agency and queer love in the 18th century. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenFeb 19, 2020
What the film excels at, however, is the anticipatory desire. It builds slowly, concluding with a stunning sequence that is all breathless remembrance and self-satisfaction that is both wordless and impalpable. The film will seem the height of romantic desire to some, but will be a slow burn for others. Read full review
88
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckDec 5, 2019
A film in which everything feels stunningly fresh, raw and new. Read full review
86
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganFeb 6, 2020
Even more powerful than Sciamma’s portrayal of a feminine portrait of solidarity and desire is the statement that art is not exclusive to those who make it. Read full review
85
SlashfilmRafael MotamayorFeb 12, 2020
A Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a richly textured, highly evocative story of love, lust and longing, and thanks to exceptional direction and remarkable, talented actors it’s a work to be cherished. Read full review
83
Original-CinKaren GordonFeb 12, 2020
This isn’t a film that suddenly bursts out at you. Sciamma, like her characters, works by restraining everything. She doesn’t rush the story or focus on a building sense of hunger or passion. The title notwithstanding, the movie is a slow burn, not a fire. Read full review
80
CineVueTom DugginsFeb 27, 2020
Its enigmatic lustre encourages you to take another look, like Marianne, to try and see what’s really in front of you. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 21, 2019
Not since Jane Campion’s The Piano has a costume drama presented such a gorgeous view of love from a woman’s point of view. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 21, 2019
Sciamma’s splendid, multi-layered conceit manages to carry equal weight as a love story and a manifesto of sorts for feminine art. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 19, 2019
Arthouse audiences will be intrigued to discover how Sciamma has channelled the fluid energy of her contemporary work into the more constrained environment of a costume drama. It won’t hurt that this is a strikingly handsome production which will be admired on a technical level. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 15, 2020
It’s still a lovely character study in a lovely setting, even if the romance rarely achieves the urgency or heat to truly animate this “portrait.” Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 12, 2020
True to its title, Portrait of a Lady on Fire generates more than its share of heat, even if it never truly becomes an engulfing flame. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GraySep 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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