Portrait of a Lady on Fire

One can never really know what goes on in someone's mind from first impressions. There are those whose personality remains impenetrable after knowing them for years and there are those who become an open book after spending very little time with them. But what group do you want someone to fall into?

This is something that Marianne (Noémie Merlant) encounters initially in Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Commissioned to discretely paint Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), she finds her subject aloof. But as more time passes between the two women, something deeper grows between them.

In contrast to other lesbian-themed films from recent years (Blue is the Warmest Color, The Handmaiden, Disobedience), Portrait of a Lady on Fire is decidedly much better in depicting such relationships. The earlier films were adapted by straight men, the resulting sex scenes looking more like they were inspired by porn than the female-penned works they're based on. Meanwhile, Sciamma -- who was once romantically involved with Haenel -- prefers more of the sensuality from parting glances and brushes of fingers that her male contemporaries tend to eschew, something that directors like Dee Rees and Donna Deitch featured in their respective sapphic showpieces as well. (A good example of this is in a scene where Marianne and Héloïse point out the other's tics.)

Sciamma also plays with the use of color in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Like the Technicolor-drenched films of Powell and Pressburger, she and cinematographer Claire Mathon toy with various contrasts such as the broad colors of Marianne and Héloïse's dresses against the pale walls of the home or silhouettes against the dusk sky. (There's another striking example best left for one to see themselves.)

Portrait of a Lady on Fire continues Sciamma's streak as a director. As she did with her earlier films, it maintains a nuance to its storytelling, not needing those big blow-out moments. And just a warning: the last scene will destroy you.

My Rating: *****

Girlhood

There's only a small handful of coming-of-age films that revolve around girls. We've seen enough stories of boys discovering the sordid world around them and how their bodies are changing. Just because the film industry is a male-dominated one doesn't mean those are the only stories that should be churned out.

Céline Sciamma's Girlhood is one of several recent titles to have girls at the forefront. Admittedly it follows the familiar "good girl gone bad" storyline but Sciamma does something different with it. But what exactly?

Girlhood follows Marieme (Karidja Touré) as she tries to find some meaning in her young life. Sciamma offers a more realistic depiction of how teenage girls interact. (Take that, male screenwriters!) After all, everyone doesn't communicate with different people the same way.

As she showed with her previous film Tomboy, Sciamma provides an unbiased portrait of how the protagonist lives their life. It's one of various ups and downs, one of good days and bad. (But isn't that life in general?)

Girlhood proves that Sciamma certainly knows how to capture the coming-of-age story. It's not always the type of story that's clean-cut nor is it one that everyone captures easily. But as she showed with Tomboy and this, Sciamma shows that she can depict the woes of youth. (Beat that, John Hughes.)

My Rating: ****1/2

Tomboy

Childhood is rough enough as it is. There's dealing with annoying siblings, problems at school, and numerous other woes that one realizes aren't so important when they're older. But what about those things one realizes at an early age that are actually crucial?

Céline Sciamma's Tomboy revolves around a young trans boy as he and his family move to a new home. As a nice deviation from other fiction of a similar nature, he feels no angst over his identity. (If only the same could be said for his mother...)

Most of the time fiction focuses on trans women in their twenties or thirties. Very seldom do trans men get their moment in the spotlight. Thankfully Sciamma provides that spotlight. (More stuff like this, please.)

Tomboy also shows that there are those of a young age that realize who they are. There could be a little boy that knows he's not attracted to girls. There could be a little girl who likes her hair short and hates wearing dresses. These are just a few examples out of many of what the children of the world might feel.

Tomboy is proof that we need more films of this nature. This is not something only encountered by people at the early peak of their lives; it can be something that children feel as well. Don't immediately assume that all girls want to play with dolls or all boys want to play sports.

My Rating: ****1/2