Review | Portrait of a Lady on Fire film review: desire and passion in Céline Sciamma’s period romance

The film sizzles with sexual tension as a French countess and her female portraitist fall for each other

This French period drama is like a canvas brought to life, and won best screenplay at Cannes this year

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Adèle Haenel (left) and Noémie Merlant in a still from Portrait of a Lady on Fire (category IIB, French) directed by Céline Sciamma.

Published: 4:00am, 10 Dec 2019Updated: 5:31am, 10 Dec 2019

4.5/5 stars

Winner of the best screenplay award when it debuted in Cannes earlier this year, Céline Sciamma’s tale of simmering passions in 18th century France would’ve been, for many, a worthy recipient of the festival’s top prize. Certainly, it’s the best French film of the year, a confirmation of what a fine talent Sciamma is. Just her fourth film in the 12 years she’s been directing, it’s a huge step up in ambition and artfulness.

It also reunites her with Adèle Haenel, who starred in her 2007 debut Water Lillies before gaining a breakout role in the Dardenne Brothers’ 2016 drama The Unknown Girl . Here, Haenel plays Héloïse, the daughter of a no-nonsense French countess (Valeria Golino). Returning from a convent after the death of her sister, Héloïse has been reluctantly betrothed to a Milanese gentleman she’s never met.

To cement this arranged marriage, her mother recruits a painter, Marianna (Noémie Merlant), to capture her image – to be sent to her suitor in Milan.

However, as Héloïse has already refused to sit for one artist, driving them to distraction, the countess instructs Marianna to pose as a companion, and make drawings of her daughter in secret. But as these two women open up to each other, feelings begin to blossom.

With Sciamma subverting the male gaze, as Marianna covertly paints her subject, the film brims with sexual tension. After 2014’s Girlhood, Sciamma’s contemporary tale of an adolescent all-girl gang, the restraint here is admirable.