Portrait of a Lady on Fire

First Hit: The film was a slow evolution and stretched at times, but also it was an engaging story about slow smoldering love.

From the opening moments after Marianne (Noemie Merlant) lands on the island and treks up to a large stately home and is greeted by the housekeeper Sophie (Luana Bajrami), we know this is going to unfold slowly.

The premise is that Marianne is there to secretly paint Heloise (Adele Haenel) who has been pulled out of a convent, where she wanted to be, by her mother, La Comtesse (Valeria Golino). Heloise is to take her sister’s place in a marriage to a man in Milan, Italy. Her sister committed suicide. The painting is to be sent to the perspective suiter.

To secretly paint Heloise, La Comtesse has told Heloise that Marianne is there to be her companion for walks. On their strolls, Heloise is brooding, inquisitive, and sullen. But the audience knows there is something deeper brewing.

The side story with Sophie being pregnant and wanting an abortion is well done. The moment she subjects herself to a procedure in a home, with a baby by her side is enormously powerful and thought-provoking.

The lighting and sets are both stark and dark but they create a beautiful space for love to flourish.

Merlant is terrific and compelling as the artist whose job it is to capture the essence and beauty of Heloise. Hanel is a smolderingly sublime reflection of beauty in this role. As a woman who is slowly falling in love, she is perfect. Bajrami is divine as the pregnant housekeeper. The scene, as described above, is very emotional. Celine Sciamma wrote and directed this film and it felt as though it came from her heart.

Overall: I loved the story, but I felt it took too long to develop.

Water Lillies (Naissance des pieuvres)

First Hit: Some of the good acting, story line, and “wow” scenes of underwater synchronized swimming kept my interest.

I’ve only seen synchronized swimming from above water and that’s what you are supposed to see, actually.

However, there was an audible gasp and “wow” in the theater when the camera went below the surface and we got to see the intense work and movement it takes to create what we see on the surface.

In fact, I would have liked more underwater scenes just because it made the juxtaposition between the made up smiling faces above the surface of the water against the intense powerful movements below the surface worth more than the price of admission. But this isn’t what this film was about.

The synchronized swimming was the background vehicle for this coming of age story about a young girl named Marie (played Pauline Acquart) who is a quiet, introspective, and coming of age in her sexuality.

She has a best friend named Anne (played by Louise Blachere) who is obsessed with a boy named Francois (played by Warren Jacquin). Anne wants to have sex with Francois but not kiss him. Her antics and actions are obsessive and fit with the age.

Marie becomes attracted to and obsessed with Floriane (played by Adele Haenel) one of the queens of the synchronized swimming team. Floriane gives the impression she is making it and having sex with lots of people but, in reality, is truly afraid of the first encounter.

Confiding in Marie, Floriane finds a friend and Marie finds love and the pain associated with it.

I thought Pauline Acquart was fantastic as Marie. She carried smoldering passion deep within her which wasn’t obvious outwardly and it was very effective. It gave her character a complexity. Louise and Adele were also strong in the characterizations of their roles.

Overall: This was a good film and I’ll always remember two things: Synchronized swimming is very physical powerful sport and that last thing most people see before they die is the ceiling.