Portrait of a Lady on Fire

It's been weeks since I watched this and it's still with me. Just stunning. The depth of emotion a single scene, facial expression, composition can portray is like nothing I've seen before. This film is what I will now use to measure what cinema can really be. Beautiful. My only warning would be to those expecting a page turning high drama holiday romance novel of a story. Go in knowing this is a methodical unfurling of the complexities of human relations. Every moment has it's own time and weight. Sit with it and allow it to wash over you and you will be moved.

Beautifully shot, acted & wrote. So many fine details make this film just a wonder to watch. Emotional, intense, heartbreaking...just sublime and will stay with you for days after.

A truly spectacular film! Amazing. Beyond words. The acting, the costumes, the setting, the camera, the use of sound and silence, the script, the storyline! This film retrains how we watch film itself, how we gaze and makes you consider how we compose fiction and reality. The two main leads are fantabulous. It's so intimate, never have I been so gripped before by silence, by stillness, by just a face or a just a shot. Among many amazing shots, the final long one, backed by Vivaldi, is electrifying. The story has it that Marianne arrives on an island, hired to paint the courtship portrait of a young aristocratic woman, Heloise. Heloise's older sister had been going to marry the same man (who is never present in the film and lives in Italy) but died in mysterious circumstances before the film begins, it is suggested, trying to escape from the marital bond. The aristocratic man that Heloise is meant to marry has never met Heloise, and the portrait that Marianne is going to paint of her will be sent to him. Based off the portrait alone, he will decide whether or not he wants to marry Heloise, the younger sister. The portrait is therefore the tool of Heloise's capturing! Paint it well: and he will marry Heloise. Destroy the painting/paint it deliberately badly: he won't. Things get complicated though when Heloise and Marianne begin to develop an intimacy. The big question to think about is: who or what is on fire? The lady or the portrait? The film's title is deliberately ambiguous. Is the lady (Heloise) on fire: in other words, aflame with passion? If so, the portrait will be a deception because she is aflame for Marianne whilst seeming to be aflame for the aristocratic male viewer. Or is it the portrait that is on fire, therefore destroying it and the marital bond? This film will haunt me for decades to come! The script is whip-sharp. A MUST SEE!