PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
Céline Sciamma
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
Directed by Céline Sciamma
February 25th, 2022
February’s last Friday film is Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Set in eighteenth century France, this film tells the gripping and emotional story of Héloïse, a young woman on the precipice of an arranged marriage, and Marianne, the artist enlisted to paint her wedding portrait. Due to Heloïse’s objections around her upcoming nuptials, Marianne is required to paint her under the guise of being a walking companion. Through their walks, these women forge a relationship; a friendship at first, and then a romance. This affair is an intimate portrayal of female desire, captured delicately through Sciamma’s tender eye, and a meditation on the intersection of love and art.