I met Noémie during the casting. I was the model, she was the painter, so we traded places. I don’t rehearse. It is very much about the present moment on set for me, but it was striking how beautiful Adèle and Noémie were together. They had this strong sense of chemistry but also equality – that was so important to the film.

But what made this movie remarkable for me was the cinematography. The most striking scenes feature the blonde character walking along the shore against a relatively light-blue sea. You have to see it to experience how beautiful those scenes are. But the thing that was surprising was this emotional part about the women artists. I didn’t anticipate this. Each time I found a new woman painter, I would go to see her work or find images in books. I had a real urge to tell their stories when I discovered these women, who had been forgotten by art history. It wasn’t about me doing a period piece or doing a particular genre. These stories hadn’t been told so they belonged to today. And a period piece always comes with such conventions. I am always obsessed with the contemporary. That was my compass: to make the most contemporary film I could. Ritman, Alex (1 December 2019). "British Independent Film Awards: 'For Sama' Wins Top Prize". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020 . Retrieved 7 December 2019. Erbland, Kate (18 September 2019). "France's Submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar Could Be a Game-Changer". Indiewire. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019 . Retrieved 8 January 2020. Portrait of a Lady on Fire was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. [5] [6] The film won the Queer Palm at Cannes, becoming the first film directed by a woman to win the award. [7] Sciamma also won the award for Best Screenplay at Cannes. [1] [8] [9] The film was theatrically released in France on 18 September 2019. [10]

I just saw this movie in France, so with neither dubbing nor subtitles. I don't know how it will work with either of them. Chicago Film Critics Association". Chicago Film Critics Association. 14 December 2019. Archived from the original on 12 December 2019 . Retrieved 5 January 2020. Neglia, Matt (8 December 2019). "The 2019 Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) Nominations". NextBestPicture. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020 . Retrieved 9 December 2019. Awards". New York Film Critics Circle. December 2019. Archived from the original on 9 November 2015 . Retrieved 7 December 2019. Wiseman, Andreas (22 May 2019). "NEON & Hulu Take North American Rights To Céline Sciamma's Palme d'Or Contender 'Portrait Of A Lady On Fire' — Cannes". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019 . Retrieved 28 May 2019.

The very nature of women’s art and the marginalization of women in the art world are built into the movie via a subplot (an unwanted pregnancy and an abortion) in a way that echoes unmistakably with the present day. Marianne laments the exclusion of women artists from “great subjects,” and Héloïse is inspired to suggest abortion as a subject of art—and, by implication, a subject no less crucial to history and experience, and no less intrinsically political, than the martial pomp that was typical of official art. The movie dramatizes the constraints of the era, the imposition of a narrow and religion-based morality, the stern discipline that’s internalized as a result, the elision of women and their world from public life, and the firm expectations of family and society that Héloïse will endure in her unwanted marriage. Yet it does more than merely depict them—it embodies them, in the characters’ poised stillness, which makes the airy surroundings feel as rigid as stone. There is no way of knowing how men and women from the eighteenth century actually carried themselves, but Sciamma’s work with the actors here reflects an inspired effort—going far beyond costume and décor—to evoke the inner life of the historical period. Clements, Sara (13 February 2020). " 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' Star Noémie Merlant Discusses #MeToo and Playing a Woman Outside the Patriarchy". Exclaim!. Abbatescianni, David (9 February 2021). " Another Round triumphs at the 2021 Robert Awards". Cineuropa. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021 . Retrieved 23 August 2021. Portrait of a Lady on Fire". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. 6 December 2019. Archived from the original on 15 December 2019 . Retrieved 10 October 2021. If I were to submit to a convention like this, it would have worked pretty well and people with that knowledge would have enjoyed the little wink. But that’s the thing. You want to find something new and think of something that’s going to really belong to the film.The beautiful thing about the research was that it didn’t feel cold or scholarly. I was moved all the time. I discovered this woman named Judith Leyster: she’s Dutch, she was a 17th-century painter. All of her work was attributed to her husband. I put an image of one of her paintings at the end of my script when I sent it out to get financed. It’s a self-portrait. She’s in front of the canvas and she has a brush in hand and she’s looking at us and she’s smiling so much you can see her teeth. I never saw a smile like that. Of course – spoiler alert – there’s Héloïse and Marianne’s love-making, too. The film manages to capture their red-hot desire without requiring, say, the controversial full-frontal sex scene that takes up an outsized portion of Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche’s 2013 film about a tempestuous lesbian romance. In focussing on the emotional build-up rather than the sex itself, Sciamma eroticises the character’s feelings rather than her actors’ bodies. The acting by the two principle actresses in this movie is first-rate. The direction, though it moves slowly, is very good. Debruge, Peter (19 May 2019). "Film Review: 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' ". Variety. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020 . Retrieved 14 July 2020. It took me a long time to figure out. I wanted Marianne to see Héloïse in a painting and that there would be a secret within the painting. But what kind of secret? The obvious one in art history is the open door of a birdcage. When a birdcage is open or closed in a painting it tells us about the girl’s virginity. When there are animals, it’s sexual metaphors.