Interview: Céline Sciamma – Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Cannes 2019 marked an important step in the career of Céline Sciamma, who took home a Best Screenplay Award from her impressive premiere in Competition with Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The period drama centered around two young women – one hired to paint a portrait of the other in 18th-century Brittany – is a compelling symphony of intense restraint and explosive release, which places the audience into a vortex of painting, music and sensuality even when depicting two people looking at each other silently in a room. The New Horizons International Film Festival made it the Opening Film of its 2019 selection, and I had the chance to sit down with the Tomboy and Girlhood filmmaker in Wroclaw to discuss her new career-best fourth feature.