Zoom Céline Sciamma: Portrait of a Lady on Fire

directed by Céline Sciamma, FR, 2019, 119 min., French language with Czech subtitles

On the occasion of the release of her newest film, we will recall some of the older films by the French filmmaker Céline Sciamma. In her work Sciamma deals with the themes of coming-of-age, fluidity of gender and sexuality and female friendships and love. 

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is an intimate drama about queer love in the 18th century. The talented painter Marianne is assigned to travel to a manorial residence on an isolated island to paint a wedding portrait of Héloise – a young woman from a wealthy family who, at her mother’s request, had just left the convent to get married to Milan. Héloise resists against the arranged marriage by refusing to have her portrait painted. Marianne therefore pretends to be hired as her companion and paints the portrait at nights using only her memories of Héloise’s face as reference. Gradually a mutual attraction between the two women develops – amplified by the approaching end of the freedom.