Portrait of a Lady on Fire Lights Up the Screen for Queer Women 

Period pieces that involve queer female love stories have abounded on the big screen in recent years, with films including Colette, The Favourite, and Vita & Virginia. Now acclaimed director Celine Sciamma (Tomboy, Girlhood) has delivered a film that's garnered critical kudos at festivals in Cannes, Telluride, and Toronto. This spring, the movie was awarded the Queer Palm award at Cannes. Now the trailer is out and telegraphs just what a stunning piece of art it appears to be.

The synopsis for the French film from Neon reads:

"In 18th century France a young painter, Marianne (Noemie Merlant), is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Heloise (Adele Haenel) without her knowing. Therefore, Marianne must observe her model by day to paint her portrait at night. Day by day, the two women become closer as they share Heloise's last moments of freedom before the impending wedding."

Previous films about forbidden same-gender love have used stolen glances and long-held looks to great advantage to build tension, as was the case with Carol. But the plot of Sciamma's film, in which one woman must study the face of another in order to replicate her likeness, is a next-level kind of gaze.

The film has so much built-up buzz that Indiewire has already named it one of the best films of the decade.

Trending stories

Beyond Wonderland's accepting & unifying rave culture is needed more than ever

'White Lotus' S3 finale recap: Here's how each character's story ended

Who died on 'The White Lotus' season 3? The finale, explained.

All 6 rogue Mississippi cops got long prison sentences in 'Goon Squad' torture of 2 Black men

Ranking NWSL teams by how gay the name is

Here's what the 'White Lotus' stars revealed about the season 3 finale

Out and About with Karan Soni

Peaches Christ says she's been 'retraumatized' by police investigating drag icon Heklina's death

Dylan Efron dishes on his sexy back arch & Speedo pics: 'That's what I'm good at!'

'White Lotus' star Arnas Fedaravicius reacts to gays flooding his DMs

Trump's orders prompt CDC to erase HIV resources

Broadway bound: The best hotels in NYC’s Theater District for every type of traveler

Robert Irwin is stripping down & rocking tiny briefs in new underwear campaign

Gerald Garth is keeping people of color happy and healthy through trying times

How LGBTQ+ student loan borrowers can survive a chaotic new era

Elon Musk uses burner accounts on X, doesn’t fact-check: report

Joe Biden has tied the record for most LGBTQ+ judges confirmed in federal courts

Cowboys & Queens U.S. tour by Jane Hilton: A modern American dream

Discover the power of Wellness in your life

France becomes world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in constitution

The Charles is Pacific Grove's new LGBTQ+ hotel

How climate disasters hurt mental health in young people

Matt Bomer reveals his favorite 'Fellow Travelers' sex scene with Jonathan Bailey

Broadway's best raise over $1 million for LGBTQ+ and HIV causes

Season 4 of The Switch on resilience & radical self-love returns this spring

• 0
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8

"Celine Sciamma's most perfect and powerful film to date came as something of a curveball when it premiered at Cannes earlier this year," Indiewire senior film critic David Ehrlich wrote. "Austere where Tomboy was anxious, and hesitant where Girlhood was rash, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the first of Sciamma's movies that could be described as 'classical' in any sense of the word. While all of her earlier offerings have told profound and tender stories of self-discovery and the images that women project, this film is more concerned with the ones they leave behind, and how stunning they can be when they aren't forced through male filters."

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is in theaters December 6.