French filmmaker Céline Sciamma has, over the course of the past twenty or so years, quietly gone about establishing themselves as one of the most impressive and interesting voices in contemporary world cinema.
Through a handful of features as Writer-Director, Sciamma has honed a distinct cinematic vernacular. Big themes are always present in her work – coming-of-age, desire, love, identity, grief and family – but their handling is consistently considered, nuanced and understated.
The cinema of Sciamma eschews bombast and excess; favouring instead emotional availability, honesty and humanity. Often working with relatively condensed runtimes and restrained formal canvases, Sciamma produces perfect miniatures of human experience - films that are rich with deceptive depth and impact that lingers long after the credits roll.
As Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Sciamma’s 2019 period romance, which surely stands as her most acclaimed achievement – returns to our screens in a new 4K version, we take the opportunity to celebrate one of cinema’s modern masters.
