One of the great romances of the last 25 years, Celine Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire continues to attract new audiences seemingly every year around this time, as its cult status grows larger and larger as a perfect example of new-age queer cinema. Filmed in English, French, and Italian, the movie takes place in 1770, following a young painter, played by Noemie Merlant, as she is commissioned to paint a secret wedding portrait of a reluctant bride, played by Adele Haenel, without her knowledge. The chemistry between the two leads is electrifying, creating a story that is just as much an observation on the souls of those in our lives as it is a rollercoaster of emotion, sensuality, and grief. On a technical level, and at the risk of seeming hyperbolic, the film is one of the most beautiful to ever be shot, combining colors in a way that the film itself looks like one of our protagonist’s 18th-century paintings. While these gorgeous frames are pleasing to observe, it also speaks to the film's themes on the anchoring of experiences in our lives, how eventually all memories that we recall become more about how they made us feel, rather than how they may have actually occurred.
