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Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Céline Sciamma
Melbourne Cinémathèque

The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Céline Sciamma | France | 2019 | M
Film

This event has ended and tickets are no longer available.

When

Wed 28 Sep 2022

Sciamma’s most celebrated work is a ravishing, intimate late 18th century-set romance centring on the relationship between a young artist (Noémie Merlant) and the soon to be married woman (Adèle Haenel) she is secretly commissioned to paint. An extraordinary pair of performances and Claire Mathon’s exquisite, painterly cinematography bring to life a “manifesto about the female gaze” (Sciamma); a feminist and queer reimagining of the dynamic between artist and muse. Winner of the Best Screenplay Award and Queer Palm at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

Format: DCP
Language: French with English Subtitles
Source: Madman
Runtime: 121 mins

Event duration

121 mins

Rating

M

Where

Cinema 1, Level 2
ACMI, Fed Square

How to get there

Membership options

Mini membership
(3 consecutive weeks)
$27–$32

Annual memberships
$153–295

See full options

Also screening on Wed 28 September

Program

Oscillating Wildly: Céline Sciamma's Inclusive Cinema

Tomboy (2011) – Wed 14 Sep, 6:30pm
Ma vie de Courgette (2016) – Wed 14 Sep, 8.10pm
Petite Maman (2021) – Wed 14 Sep, 9:30pm
Being 17 (2016) – Wed 21 Sep, 7pm
Paris 13th District (2021) – Wed 21 Sep, 9:05pm
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) – Wed 28 Sep, 7pm
Girlhood (2014) – Wed 28 Sep, 9:10pm

View the full program

About the program

Oscillating Wildly: Céline Sciamma's Inclusive Cinema

Although many only discovered the cinema of Céline Sciamma (1978–) with the international release of the extraordinary ‘two-hander’ Portrait of a Lady on Fire, she had already forged a remarkably productive career as a filmmaker, screenwriter and activist (she was a founder of Le Collectif 50/50, for example). Completing a Masters in French literature and attending France’s most prestigious film school, Le Fémis, Sciamma helmed her first feature, Water Lilies, in 2007.

Read the full program notes
Celine Sciamma

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About Melbourne Cinémathèque

Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.

Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven. 

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