Review

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is so goddamn good. It is very much one of those movies where every frame is, appropriately, a painting. I watched it last night and just keep thinking about it. It's very subdued and stripped back. Much of the movie is quiet and there is really just 4 main characters that take up 95% of the runtime. Excellent example of proper cinema where everything has a purpose, every line is necessary. There were several shots in the movie that made me genuinely smile from how well-composed they were. The movie is set in the 18th century. It's a romantic drama about a painter who visits a remote island off Brittany in order to paint a woman's wedding portrait and the relationship that develops between the two. The dialogue was also particularly well-done. It felt very natural. But when I tell you, I felt their relationship. The acting from the two leads was phenomenal. I felt it. You could have told me they were madly in love in real life and I would have 100% believed you. Some of the scenes in the movie are the most erotic things I've seen in cinema. And some of it is purely through dialogue. Highly recommended to anyone that really appreciates the craft and cinematography of movies.