One of the best reviewed films of the year and winner of the coveted Best Screenplay and Queer Palm awards at the Cannes Film Festival, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE is an intimate and deeply affecting period drama about freedom, love and desire. Marianne is a young painter in 18th-Century France, commissioned to do a wedding portrait of Héloïse without her knowing. Marianne disguises herself as her companion to get closer to her subject – observing by day and secretly painting at night. Intimacy and attraction grow between the two women as they share Héloïse’s first and last moments of freedom. The portrait soon becomes a collaborative act and a testament to their love.
M
119
French (English subtitles)
Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino
Céline Sciamma