Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

Speaking at a BAFTA Screenwriters’ Lecture at the end of 2019, French screenwriter Céline Sciamma (Water Lilies, Tomboy, Girlhood) explains of her process: “I do have my way of doing it. I guess, at this stage, I could drop a central notion here: Desire. Writing is about… trying to build an architecture of multiple desires.” And it’s desire that’s precisely the foundation of her latest film, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire.

Portrait, which won both the Queer Palm and Best Screenplay at Cannes last year, follows the story of a young, female painter (Noémie Merlant; Return Of The Hero, La Fête Des Mères) who, after being sent to an isolated island in Bretagne, France, at the end of the 18th Century, is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman (Adèle