Is she...you know... [Vivaldi Starts Playing] - Portrait of a Lady on Fire review

2020 is an important year for lesbian cinema, with classic But I’m a Cheerleader celebrating its 20th anniversary. To honour this anniversary, let’s take a look at lesbian cinema today and talk about one of its most recent excellences, Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Premiered in the UK in February 2020, the film is set in the eighteenth century and it follows a painter, Marianne, hired by a countess to paint a portrait of her daughter Heloise. Marianne must observe Heloise and paint her in secret, however, as Heloise does not wish to be painted.

Brought to us by Celine Sciamma – the same masterful artist behind Tomboy (2011) and Girlhood (2014) – Portrait of a Lady on Fire is sure to become a classic of queer cinema. Its seminal use of the female gaze talks to a need for stories about women, from women. And more specifically, about women loving women, from women who love women.

Men as a whole gender have a total of two (2!) lines in the whole film. Men merely exist within this world as nameless shadows and wordless menaces, a far and distant threat to the loving bliss of Marianne and Heloise. These women know their love won’t be forever. That they can’t keep living in this ladies-only oasis they have created, and men will soon have to be part of their lives again. But for the two weeks, or two hours, of this film, what they can do is make the best out of their short time. With men and their gaze out of the way, the women in this film are free. Free to run in the sand for the first time, and free to have an abortion with not so much as a word of judgement – just support, and understanding, and solidarity; away from the inquisitive look of patriarchy, these women are free to desire.

And desire they do, in their own revolutionary way that is as simple and universal as it is unique to them, then and there. When Heloise asks “do all lovers feel like they’re inventing something?” that sentence strikes deep in the soul of all spectators, because yes. Every time we fall in love is the first time, and every love is new. And it will ring especially true for the queer people watching, because we literally had to invent our own way to love, with no rules or conventions to lead us to a “right” way – just yearning to love, and be loved, and be happy.

Celine Sciamma knows this feeling and turns it into art with impeccable skill. Her love for women, and for love, and for the art love makes, is evident in every carefully crafted detail of this masterpiece. Every single frame could very well be hanging in Marianne’s painting studio, from the titular Portrait to everyday, quiet moments with their own simple dignity.

So to the lover, to the artist, to the queer – if you haven’t had the chance yet, watch Portrait of a Lady on Fire. You might not be sure if love is a metaphor for art, or art a metaphor for love. My answer? Yes.