3/14/2020 - Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) - 9-/10

C’est extraordinaire. Absolutely sumptuous and riveting. In the Mood for Love meets Barry Lyndon and Blue is the Warmest Color. Sensual, devastatingly captivating in the heaving subtlety of a thousand crashing waves. Purses lips, tight bodices, piercing glares, and wind racked island isolation keeps our distance but opens our hearts. This is sheer artistry in motion, every magical moment.

The searing meaning and emotional viability captured in every held breath and bubbling interaction. The nigh effortless glory of perfectly rendered lighting and distilled elegance with each frame magicked from visual ambrosia. It is intoxicating to remember in my memory. The conceptual gymnastics to not only deny this as the best french film of the year, but as one of the best pictures all around is staggering.

All four actresses here are simply marvelous and memorable. The rigidity of the times, the bruising harshness of Mother Nature, the strictness of placement and societal rules, contrasted with the truly fiery femininity that burns in the soul of this film - it just squeezes my soul... Sensual without being garish. Full of life while being quiet as the mousy scrape or brush on canvass. It is the understated whisper of ineffable majesty.

Astounding and arresting. Luxurious in every way that it could be. A must see.