Tag: Noémie Merlant

Female Characters, Female Filmmakers, Film Festivals, Film Reviews, Reviews, Women in Film

Berlinale Exclusive Review: Jumbo

What happens when a woman falls in love with an inanimate object? A rollercoaster, to be precise? This colourful, strange, sensitive feast for the eyeballs explores just that.

Jeanne (Noémie Merlant, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”) is an outsider who is unlike the people around her. She’s tormented by cruel men and lives with her leopard print-wearing, day-drinking mother Margarette (Emmanuelle Bercot) who loudly displays her own sexuality to the point of embarrassment.

Her favourite place in the world is the local theme park and she spends hours creating illuminated models of the rides in her bedroom. Continue reading Berlinale Exclusive Review: Jumbo

Caz1 Comment
Directors, Female Characters, Female Filmmaker, Female Filmmakers, Female Writer, Film Reviews, History, Interviews, LGBTQ Cinema, LGBTQ Filmmakers, Reviews, Valentines, Women in Film

Review: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and Q&A with Céline Sciamma

“It’s done,” Céline Sciamma said through laughter, “I don’t need your approval!” Ten minutes earlier, a lengthy applause break punctuated the film screening and Sciamma was welcomed to the stage with a standing ovation. Sitting in a folding director’s chair on-stage in the sold-out Music Box Theater in Chicago, IL, Sciamma shared insights on the filmmaking process during a question and answer session with the audience. The early pre-screening of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019) was part of a press tour preceding the films wide release in the United States. Continue reading Review: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and Q&A with Céline Sciamma

Jenni Holtz2 Comments
Female Characters, Female Filmmaker, Women in Film, World Cinema

ITOL 2019 Round-up: Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

“Portrait Of A Lady On Fire” is a wonderfully subtle, minimalist film, one that trusts the audience’s ability to pick up on the slightest glance, the coyest smirk. It’s also worth nothing that the director is herself a queer woman, having known Haenel as a partner both professional and romantic, and reminding us that queer and trans folk should be taking the lead on LGBTQ+ cinema. Continue reading ITOL 2019 Round-up: Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

James Cain1 Comment
Female Filmmaker, Film Reviews, LGBTQ Cinema, World Cinema

Review: Portrait of a Lady on Fire

This is the female gaze like you’ve never seen it before. “Portrait”–a film set in Brittany, France in the 18th century–is a showcase of how the depths of insight and poignancy in a work of art comes as a result of the artist having a deep, loving, obsessive understanding of their subject. It is a film about two women on an island with hardly anyone else around them and the painfully, yet deliciously slow romance that materializes from a connection of their minds, bodies, and souls.

The film is thematically rich and daring, yet never once seeks to shove a message or agenda down your throat; it’s a love story, plain and simple. Writer/director Céline Sciamma clearly isn’t interested in subverting history in an effort to appease the needs of a contemporary audience–yet in spite of that, this is a film brimming with human truths. It is reminiscent of the underpinnings and themes found Greek and Gothic literature and poetry. Tender, yet complex and multifaceted–this is in no way a political film, but rather, a subtle social commentary on the kinds of job opportunities available to women in the 18th century. Continue reading Review: Portrait of a Lady on Fire

miquewatson1 Comment