Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Description:

Passion brews quietly between an artist and her subject, until together they create a space in which it can briefly flourish, in this sumptuous eighteenth-century romance from Celine Sciamma, one of contemporary French cinema's most acclaimed auteurs. Summoned to an isolated seaside estate on a secret assignment, Marianne (Noemie Merlant) must find a way to paint a wedding portrait of Heloise (Adele 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.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New conversation between director Celine Sciamma and film critic Dana Stevens
• New interviews with actors Adele Haenel and Noemie Merlant
• Interview with cinematographer Claire Mathon from the 2019 Cannes Film Festival
• Interview from 2019 with artist Helene Delmaire on creating the paintings for the film
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Ela Bittencourt
• New cover by Helene Delmaire