Masterpiece Alert! PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNE FILLE EN FEU is french filmmaker Céline Sciamma’s fourth directorial feature, and a somewhat prophetic work of cinematic gusto by the future superstar of global cinema. Sciamma’s considers her first three films (WATER LILIES, TOMBOY, and GIRLHOOD) as a loose coming-of-age trilogy, signifying this film as a conceptual maturation of sorts, evident by the high drama, period setting, and burning intensity.

Set at the end of the eighteenth century on the Brittany coast of northern France, an emancipated professional portrait painter, Marianne (Noémie Merlant) has been commissioned to capture the likeness of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) for potential suitors. WIthin Sciammas dimension of unhurried and intimate direction, a surging romance erupts between the women, and this unconventional passion finds its way into Marianne’s creative output. The splash which PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE made at the Cannes Film Festival this year suggests that Céline Sciamma will not just be a filmmaker to watch for on this year’s awards shows and best-of lists, but sitting at the table alongside the planet’s best working directors.