FILM 2186: PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (2019)

TRIVIA: The paintings by Marianne were all created by painter Hélène Delmaire, whom Noémie Merlant worked closely with to inform her character's perspectives and sight lines when painting.

The film was shot in 8k. Céline Sciamma wanted to capture a large dynamic range of colors and for the film to feel contemporary, whereas 35mm felt too timeless.

Céline Sciamma and Adèle Haenel are ex-lovers. They split amicably prior to filming.

In the festival scene the women sing 'non possunt fugere' continuously: it's Latin for 'they cannot escape'. The same chant can be heard over the closing credits.

The literal translation of the original title is, "Portrait of the Young Girl on Fire." One suspects that "the Young Girl" was changed to "a Lady" for the English title of the film in order to evoke the Henry James novel, "The Portrait of a Lady."

According to Céline Sciamma, one of the manifestos of the film was to get rid of the idea of a muse, which she considers to be a "nice" word that actually hides the participation of woman in artistry. The muse is typically seen as a silent, fetishized woman who is inspiring just because she is beautiful. And even though for a long time, women's opportunities in art were limited to modeling, she claims that the models were co-creating the art by being one of the brains in the room and helping to guide the artist. Her goal was to portray that and to make a love story and a creation dialogue with equality.

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