30 Day Movie Challenge: Day 5- Portrait Of A Girl On Fire (2019)

I will be the first to admit that I was not a huge fan of Rotten Tomatoes as I was always under the impression that critics were always wrong. I have since grown to accept and trust their ratings system to an extent and with that being said the task for today on the 30 Day Film Challenge was to watch a highly rated film on Rotten Tomatoes. I had seen a lot of the films on the list and one that came in at 98% that looked interesting was Portrait Of A Girl On Fire which was written and directed by Céline Sciamma (Tomboy) and was released in 2019. The film stars Noémie Merlant (Heaven Will Wait) as Marianne, a painter who has been summoned in 1700's France to paint the portrait of a wealthy women's daughter for a wedding gift. The only problem is the girl had to leave the convent to take her sisters place in this marriage so she refuses to pose for anyone. So, Marianne has to take walks with her everyday and secretly study her with her knowing that she is going to paint her. The film also stars Adèle Haenel (Love At First Fight) as Héloïse, Luàna Bajrami (War On Beasts) as Sophie,  Valeria Golino (Hot Shots! Part Deux) as La Comtesse, Christel Baras (Tomboy) as La faiseuse d'anges, and Armande Boulanger (The Returned) as L'élève atelier.

One thing that I will say that the French get right every time and that is the story and concept of love. If anything they may not have invented love, but they are certainly perfected it's language and this film is just full of those brilliant moments in writing. The story isn't very complex, but the actions of the characters helped tell the story and it was a moving one as Marianne starts falling in love with Héloïse who is absolutely beautiful in this film. There is a point in the film where art starts to imitate life and it did that here after Héloïse read the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The question whether it was done on purpose or if he turned around to say goodbye to Eurydice and the same thing happens in this after all the days spent together. The other tragic part of the film was how they loved each other so much, but they knew that in that society they could never be together and that must have been painful considering years later and they still have not forgotten each other. The last issue they touch upon in the film is the idea of abortions and in my opinion much like the film it's a woman's choice. Those are some pretty heavy subjects for a 18TH century time period piece. The costumes in the film are great, the cinematography is very good with all the scenic shots. There is a reason why this film has a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and this is because it was well acted and well written and that is why I am giving the film an A for a final grade.