217 - Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Eavesdropping at the Movies · Mar 10, 2020 · 26m

A delicate, intelligent love story, Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire undulates with complex, interlocking themes and emotions. It's a film about looking: who looks, who is looked at, how one should be seen, for whom the gaze is intended and what the rules are. Héloïse, a young aristocrat, refuses to have her portrait painted for the approval of a Milanese nobleman; an artist named Marianne is commissioned to do just that, but in secret, forcing her to steal glances at her subject and, outwardly, act merely as her companion. The women's relationship quickly develops, and soon they…