MOVIE · 2019

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

DramaRomance122 min

Noémie Merlant is Marianne, a painter hired in secret to make a wedding portrait of Héloïse, a reluctant bride living on an isolated island in late-18th-century Brittany. Because Héloïse refuses to sit for the painting, Marianne must study her during walks and daily routines, turning each glance and gesture into part of her work. As Marianne moves under the watch of the household, Adèle Haenel’s Héloïse becomes both subject and collaborator, and the commission shifts into an intimate relationship shaped by observation, secrecy, and the terms of an arranged marriage.