4 stars
great lesbian love story with a bittersweet ending
outstanding acting and no major plot holes
globohomo agenda is there but not overbearing
mixed feelings about cinematography - color and detail are amazing but many shots feel caustrophobic because they are way too zoomed in - i am guessing the movie was shot for watching on a tablet - which is a logical choice considering it’s a 2019 movie for chicks, but for me it was the biggest negative about the movie …
just like in “Black Swan” the biggest negative for me was excessive noise in the picture in “The Portriat of a Lady on Fire” the biggest negative was excessively zoomed in shots.
but if that’s the biggest problem with a movie that means the movie is pretty good.
granted not a whole lot actually happens in the film so if you like action you will absolutely HATE this and wonder how it could even be made ? but personally i don’t give a shit about action - not an issue for me.
even so, this movie really pushes the limit of how little actually happens - almost the entire movie is just zoomed in shots of the faces of two girls falling in love with each other - pretty much the entire movie hinged on the ability of the two actresses to, well, act … i think they did a great job.
to clarify this is NOT an erotic movie. it’s a love story. there is a fair amount of nudity in the film but no real sex scenes and little sexuality in general.
anyway, you get the idea … pretty much the entire movie can be summed up with just the image below:
oh yeah, there isn’t a single word of English in the movie. it’s mostly French with a little bit of Italian … then again, you would expect that from this type of movie.