The Transcendent Power of Art in ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’

Celine Sciamma’s 2019 masterpiece of desire, forbidden love, and tragedy

Director Céline Sciamma decided upon two key omissions early in production of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019). First, that there would be few smiles from the all-female cast in what became the first 70 minutes of runtime. Second, that there would be no music, save two scenes where it crystallizes with the power and emotion of a thunderstorm. “…you will have to find the musicality of the film elsewhere,” Sciamma said in an interview with IndieWire. “In the rhythm of the scenes, in the bodies of the actors.”

Portrait of a Lady on Fire masterfully captures a desire that swells like the tumultuous ocean that Marianne and Héloïse gaze upon while stealing longing glances at each other, until the swells coalesce and produce a grand wave of passionate hunger, a necessity for each other’s touch. Portrait portrays the yearning and desperate lust of an early relationship better than any film I’ve seen, all upon the tragic backdrop of the lovers’ knowledge that what they’ve captured cannot last.