Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019): Passion, Love, and Art — Movie Discussion
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Passion brews quietly between an artist and her subject, until together they create a space in which it can briefly flourish, in this sumptuous 18th century romance from Céline Sciamma, one of contemporary French cinema’s most acclaimed auteurs. Summoned to an isolated seaside estate on a secret assignment, Marianne (Noémie Merlant) must find a way to paint a wedding portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), who is resisting chattel marriage, by furtively observing her. What unfolds in exquisite tension is an exchange of sustained gazes in which the two women come to know each other’s gestures, expressions, and bodies with rapturous intimacy, ultimately forging a subversive creative collaboration as well as a delirious romance.
Charged with a yearning that almost transcends time and space, Portrait of a Lady on Fire mines the emotional and artistic possibilities that emerge when women can freely live together and see one another in a world without men.
"“Do all lovers,” wonders Héloïse in a passionate moment, “feel as though they’re inventing something?” Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a bittersweet celebration of passion and art, feels like that; you’ve never seen another movie quite like this. In its quiet gaze, love becomes art — and vice versa." (Seattle Times)
"It’s deeply romantic and also deeply thoughtful — an electric combination." (Time Out)
"The relationship between the two women develops as one of reciprocity and equality. The film rejects a hierarchical vision of desire and in the process updates the relationship between artist and model and the fetishised figure of the ‘muse’." (Sight and Sound)
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Let's discuss the movie Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), a French historical drama written and directed by Céline Sciamma. It's one of the most acclaimed films of the 21st century so far and recently voted the 30th greatest movie of all time in Sight & Sound's international survey of film critics and experts. The film also won for Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
Please watch the movie in advance.
You can stream it with a viewing link posted here.
We'll be joined by other participants from the Toronto Philosophy Meetup at this meeting — https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/
Check out other online film discussions in the group happening every Friday, Monday, and occasionally other days.