Criterion Press Release: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Passion brews quietly between an artist and her subject, until they together create a space in which it can briefly flourish, in this sumptuous eighteenth-century romance from Céline Sciamma, one of contemporary French cinema’s most acclaimed auteurs. Summoned to an isolated seaside estate on a secret assignment, Marianne (Noémie Merlant) must find a way to paint a wedding portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), who is resisting chattel marriage, by furtively observing her. What unfolds in exquisite tension is an exchange of sustained gazes in which the two women come to know each other’s gestures, expressions, and bodies with rapturous intimacy, ultimately forging a subversive creative collaboration as well as a delirious romance. Charged with a yearning that almost transcends time and space, Portrait of a Lady on Fire mines the emotional and artistic possibilities that emerge when women can freely live together and look at one another in a world without men.

FILM INFO

• Céline Sciamma
• France
• 2019
• 121 minutes
• Color
• 1.85:1
• French
• Spine #1034
  
  DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
  • New 4K digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New conversation between director Céline Sciamma and film critic Dana Stevens
  • New interviews with actors Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant
  • Interview with cinematographer Claire Mathon from the 2019 Cannes Film Festival
  • Interview from 2019 with artist Hélène Delmaire on creating the paintings for the film, along with behind-the-scenes footage
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Ela Bittencourt
  New cover by Hélène Delmaire
  
  June 23, 2020
  

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thank you for supporting HTF when you preorder using the link below. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link. As an Amazon Associate HTF earns from qualifying purchases

 

[bujaki]

Extraordinary film! Brush up on your Orpheus and Eurydice myth for enhanced enjoyment (Gluck's opera on the side). This film elicited a lot of discussion between my wife and me. Great cinematography, music and acting.

 

[titch]

There were a lot of great movies last year - but this was the greatest. Absolutely belongs in the Criterion Collection.

 

[Jake Lipson]

This was excellent. Glad to see Criterion getting this one straightaway instead of Universal releasing a barebones version first as with some other Neon titles (*cough* Parasite *cough*.). I'll probably pick this one up eventually.

That being said, why does it need a "new English subtitle translation" for a brand new movie? Was the translation used for the recent theatrical release inaccurate?

 

[B-ROLL]

I'm sure we'll here the "Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches splices, warps and jitter were manually removed using MTS ... " as well

 

[Ronald Epstein]

 

[Keith Cobby]

Surely this needs a 4k release.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Surely this needs a 4k release.

I suppose it's not impossible that Universal could do that, since they are normally Neon's distribution partner. But Criterion's deal for it might be exclusive. Also, given the film's modest box office take of only $3.76 million, Universal might not think it's worthwhile. They didn't even schedule a 4K release for Parasite until after it won the Oscar. Is it possible that this will get a 4k version in France that could be imported if you want it? I'm just guessing it was probably a bigger hit there.

In any case, I'm glad Criterion is getting this one right away instead of Universal putting out a barebones version first. I'll probably double dip when they release Parasite, but would have waited if that version had been announced in advance.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I had a couple gift certificates to Criterion lying around that I was originally going to use during the next flash sale. But I decided to go ahead and use them now on this. Stacking both gift certificates in combination with their 30% off sale got the price down to $14.91 shipped, which is great. So I moved my order over there and cancelled my pending Amazon one.

Does anyone know how long it typically takes for Criterion titles to ship after their release? Obviously, Portrait is a pre-order for release next week; I've never done a pre-order with Criterion directly before. It will probably take a little while longer to get to me than if I had stuck with Amazon where I have Prime shipping benefits, but for the price difference, that's fine. It would have been $29.70 with Amazon, so considering that I got it for almost half that price, I don't mind a delay.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Criterion shopped my copy this morning.

 

[Robert Harris]

Wonderful film. Beautifully directed, performed, photographed. Need to see Water Lillies.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Well, this was a nice surprise. My copy just arrived in the mail a day early. I will probably watch it tonight.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I posted this in the Daily Viewing List thread, too, but will duplicate it here in this specific case just in case some of you who may be interested in this disc don't look there.

My copy of Portrait of a Lady On Fire, ordered from the Criterion store, arrived a day earlier than street date, so of course I felt like watching it tonight because technically speaking, I shouldn't be able to until tomorrow. It doesn't surprise me that Criterion did a terrific job on this release, because they always do, but wow, they did a terrific job on this release. The cinematography is stunning, and the transfer renders it perfectly. The colors, particularly in the outdoor scenes, are so striking and bold and and just pop off the screen. It is a pleasure to watch and to live in this world for two hours.

I had to pause it for a couple minutes about an hour in to use the bathroom, and when I did, it occurred to me that you could pause almost any frame of this disc and see a genuine piece of art. I'm not sure how it could have been overlooked for a Best Cinematography Oscar nomination unless voters just simply didn't see the film.

I loved the movie in theaters, but I was really taken with its visuals here, when I was able to be closer to the image than I was in the theater screening. This is a beautiful film, and the transfer is one of the best I've seen in a while. The film holds up wonderfully, too, and I look forward to revisiting it frequently. It's a beautiful story well-told, and you really get to know these women and their passions. I don't want to say too much else because people reading this might not have seen the film yet, but was very moved in the theater, and I was very moved again tonight. I usually wait for 50% off sales, but I'm glad I didn't wait on this one. It's certainly one of the best films of last year and one of the most romantic films in some time.

One small thing about the subtitles: there's a moment in which the Countess, Heloise's mother, asks Marianne where she learned Italian. I think but am not positive that this indicates that the preceding line was spoken in Italian, and that the Countess did not expect Marianne to understand it. If I were a native French speaker, this would not need explanation because it would be recognizable that the language just shifted. But because I am not a native speaker of French and am relying on the subtitles, it wasn't immediately clear to me that the Countess was speaking in Italian. Since I'm not fluent in either language, I'm not able to distinguish quickly between French and Italian; it all just isn't English, if that makes sense. So, because this is the American edition of the Blu-ray, it would have been helpful if the subtitles had indicated that the line was [in Italian] or some such thing. I would assume that the whole movie is in French unless I am told otherwise. I'm pretty sure it was just affecting the one line or something, if I understood it correctly, but a clarification would be nice. Anyway, that's a minor issue but still, I thought, worth mentioning for not being as totally clear as it perhaps should have been.

On a personal note, this film has the unusual distinction of being the final movie I saw at my local arthouse about a week or so before the coronavirus shut everything down, so getting the disc feels both significant and a little sad, since I have no idea when it will be safe to return there. I do hope the disc helps it find a larger audience, since even though theaters closing was necessary, the film deserves to be seen and its theatrical run being cut short is unfortunate.

 

[bujaki]

I posted this in another thread, but decided to do it here as well in response to Jake:
Magnificent film and a great memory to have as the last film you viewed before the lockdown. I'm fluent in French/Italian, so I can answer the question. There's a shift in languages at that point. It's a good point you bring up with subtitles. I have a fine ear and I can tell when there's a shift in many European languages, but how can I tell when Mandarin shifts into Cantonese, etc.?

 

[Keith Cobby]

I had intended to buy the blu ray but streamed the film on Amazon. Wonderful film with some of the most beautiful cinematography you will ever see. Two highlights for me were the scenes in flickering candlelight near the beginning, and the scene at the art exhibition near the end. This film really, really needs a 4k release.

 

[JoeStemme]

Celine Sciamma's delicately rendered tale of the attraction between a Painter and her subject is a slow burn, but, it ignites nonetheless. Marianne (Noemie Merlant) is commissioned by a Comtesse (the always luminous Valeria Golino) to paint a portrait of her puzzling daughter Héloïse (Adele Haenel), but, there is an obstacle -- Héloïse won't pose. Marianne must act as a guest who simply observes her elusive subject by day, and paint at night. Soon the 'observations' become an attraction as Marianne studies not only Héloïse's physical features, but, her manners and bearing. Sciamma (who also wrote the screenplay) takes her time. The pas de deux of the two women is allowed to develop even while there is a supposed deadline to complete the secret painting. It's an exquisite balance abetted by Cinematographer Claire Mathon. Together, Sciamma and her camerawoman create a lovely mood. The framing, lighting and positioning of the actresses can justifiably be termed 'painterly', but, it rarely comes off as self-consciously so. There is no musical score but the two pieces of music (one composed for the film by Para One, the other, Vivaldi's Four Seasons) are essential to the structure of the movie. Still, by having the vast majority of the run-time sans any background score, it forces the viewer to remain intimately involved with women on screen, with even the long patches of utter silence drawing one it. As artfully produced as the movie is, it falls upon the lead actresses to carry it off (the only other significant character is a Maid (Luana Barjami). Merlant and Haenel do so, touchingly. Haenel has shown her talents in such pictures as B.P.M. and the Dardennes' UNKNOWN GIRL, but Merlant is just as fine here in a trickier role. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE is a beautifully wrought chamber piece which lingers in the mind. Like it's enigmatic title, it's a movie that haunts.

 

[bujaki]

post deleted