Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Stars: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami
Runtime: 121 minutes
Synopsis: On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Performances: 8/10
Screenplay: 7/10
Costumes/Makeup: 7/10
Editing: 6/10
Cinematography: 8/10
Verdict: I really, really, really wanted to love this movie. In fact, as soon as I heard about its reception at the Cannes Film Festival, it instantly became one of my most anticipated films of the entire year. And who knows, maybe I'll feel differently about it if I give it another shot one day, but right now, I can't say that I was as wowed by it as the vast majority of people who watched.
Now I think it's important to keep in mind while reading this review that I'm fluent in French, and therefore watched the movie without relying on subtitles, which are great tools to watch films told in a foreign language, but never are a 100% exact translation of the dialogue, delivery, and context. I'm stating that because one of my issues with the film was the script, which I personally thought never reached a level of ingenuity that kept me invested in the story of Marianne and Héloïse, played respectively by the talented Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel. It all felt empty and lifeless, and I had an extremely difficult time connecting on an emotional level to the two protagonists and the relationship they shared. The lack of score, while grounding the narrative, also added to that hollowness, and that is made even more clear in the few scenes that did contain some kind of music, as I found them to be the most interesting and emotionally impactful of the entire movie. Despite that, I cannot deny that "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" remains a visually stunning film to look at, but here also, I found the cinematography to be a little lacking when it comes to injecting life to the project.
As I said, my opinion might completely shift if I ever decide to revisit this movie, but for now I'm honestly not tempted to. I appreciated some elements of it, including the paintings created by artist Hélène Delmaire, but overall felt incredibly disconnected to everything else. I'm happy so many people are responding to it in such a positive way, but I'd be lying if I said that my experience was similar.
Now I think it's important to keep in mind while reading this review that I'm fluent in French, and therefore watched the movie without relying on subtitles, which are great tools to watch films told in a foreign language, but never are a 100% exact translation of the dialogue, delivery, and context. I'm stating that because one of my issues with the film was the script, which I personally thought never reached a level of ingenuity that kept me invested in the story of Marianne and Héloïse, played respectively by the talented Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel. It all felt empty and lifeless, and I had an extremely difficult time connecting on an emotional level to the two protagonists and the relationship they shared. The lack of score, while grounding the narrative, also added to that hollowness, and that is made even more clear in the few scenes that did contain some kind of music, as I found them to be the most interesting and emotionally impactful of the entire movie. Despite that, I cannot deny that "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" remains a visually stunning film to look at, but here also, I found the cinematography to be a little lacking when it comes to injecting life to the project.
As I said, my opinion might completely shift if I ever decide to revisit this movie, but for now I'm honestly not tempted to. I appreciated some elements of it, including the paintings created by artist Hélène Delmaire, but overall felt incredibly disconnected to everything else. I'm happy so many people are responding to it in such a positive way, but I'd be lying if I said that my experience was similar.
FINAL GRADE: 7/10
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