‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ in a Single Scene
Each scene more beautiful than the last, Céline Sciamma’s directorial masterpiece is as carefully cropped as her dialogue-spare but affecting script.
It is impossible to pick the best shot in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Each scene’s composition references the legacy of painting it employs as a central plot device. Colors, lighting, and location are carefully chosen and used as tools to create a vivid and intimate portrait of women desperate to thrive on their own terms.
The narrative is a taut give and take of people with wildly varying needs who rely on each other to come away with everything they desire. Painter Marianne (Noémie Merlant) needs a good commission to pay her way and solidify her reputation in a man’s art world. La Comtesse (Valeria Golino) requires a good marriage of one of her daughters to live out her final years without worry. The independent but trapped Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) desires to go back to the independence and learning of the convent she has been taken out of. The rarely referenced Sophie (Luàna Bajrami)is running a household by herself while attempting to find love in a private life we get only a momentary glance into.
It is a fairy tale: beautiful, unreal, and while a turning point for every character, the narrative itself will likely be a short chapter in between the headings of…
