Lesbian romance ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ scorches the screen
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Executive Editor
jones@dallasvoice.com
Two-hundred years ago, having a wedding portrait made wasn’t as simple as a Google search, or even a selfie. Trained artists would have to journey to you and spend days, even weeks taking brush to canvas, capturing the visage of the bride … and hopefully, something more.
That’s the task set to Marianne (Noemie Merlant), a woman portraitist during an era when few women could make a living in any field. That may explain why she got this less-than-prestigious commission: To travel to a remote island in the English Channel, off the coast of Northern France. She’s not the first to take on this assignment; the last painter left without finishing the portrait of the reclusive, headstrong subject, Heloise (Adele Haenel). Marianne feels ill at ease in these circumstances — how did Heloise’s sister die? Why did she reject her suitor?
Told in flashback, Portrait of a Lady on Fire oozes Gothic mystery and clandestine sexual tension. The trope of the newcomer confronted by closed-lipped servants in a remote, wind-battered setting has been a surefire one since the days of the Bronte sisters and Henry James. But what sets this film apart is how incisively writer-director Celine Sciamma uses her camera, sometimes with point-of-view shots that create tension or excitement, sometimes with the detachment of a painter herself; any given frame could be its own masterpiece — a Vermeer, or perhaps a Rembrandt. It’s as ravishing as its subject matter.
But it’s also a fully-formed love story. Despite their differences in station and position, both Heloise and Marianne are women — queer ones at that — at a time when that could strangle one’s independence and self-determination.
United by their brave defiance of convention, they forge a bond that is both sensual and spiritual.
Sciamma seems at least as interested in the artistic temperament and the process of falling in love as she is telling a stylish romance with elements of historical symbolism, but the remarkable thing is how well she does it. Both principal actresses are exceptional, with great chemistry, but Valeria Golino as Heloise’s mother and Luana Bajrami as her maid steal their scenes.
Far more creative and empowering than the well-trod feminism of the recent umpteenth Little Women remake, Portrait of a Lady on Fire scorches the screen with its intelligence and sexiness.
Now playing at Landmark’s Magnolia.
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QUEER CLIP: ‘Seberg’
Seberg, the new biopic of doomed film star Jean Seberg, takes a fairly straight-forward approach to its subject matter, sort of the flip side to a film like BlackKklansman: How law enforcement can ruin a person with questionable justification. But it’s a story that deserves to be told, and it does so maturely and seriously. And in the era of Trumpian politicization of the Justice Department, it feels eerily relevant today.
Kristen Stewart is an uncannily fortuitous choice for the title role: The right age, physically similar and herself a polarizing figure due to her personal life (as well as mixed reviews for her acting abilities). She delivers here, even if she doesn’t ignite the screen. Even better is Anthony Mackie as the Black Panther she carries on an affair with. Their chemistry is the driving force of this long-overdue treatment of a Hollywood tragedy.
— Arnold Wayne Jones
Now playing at Landmark’s Magnolia.
