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CNET
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNET
My Favorite Film Is a Historical Drama Packed With Modern Themes. It's Free to Stream Now
I can count on one hand the number of times I've finished watching a film for the first time and immediately turned around to rewatch it. And there's only one film that I wish I could erase from my memory simply to watch it again for the first time. That film is Céline Sciamma's 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire. A visually stunning film that reimagines a timeless love story, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is brimming with slow-burn passion, classical references, relevant and modern themes with breathtaking cinematography to boot. I first saw the movie as an undergraduate film student at UNC Chapel Hill and have since watched the film at least a dozen times, each resonating as strongly as the first watch. So I can't help but evangelize the film -- especially when it's free to watch on Kanopy. The movie is also available on Max -- one of CNET's picks for best streaming service -- with a paid subscription or available to rent on Prime Video, but the easiest option is to watch free right now on Kanopy with your public library login or university ID credentials. Almost every scene in Portrait of a Lady on Fire looks like a masterpiece painting. Lilies Films/Hold-Up Films/Arte France Cinéma Set in 1770 Brittany, in northern France, Portrait of a Lady on Fire tells the story of Marianne, a middle-class painter commissioned by a countess to paint the wedding portrait of her daughter, Héloïse, a young woman forced to leave the convent to enter an arranged marriage with a Milanese nobleman. Opposing the marriage, Héloïse refuses to sit for any portrait, which would guarantee her marriage, so Marianne must produce the portrait in secret. Having already exhausted other painters, the Countess instructs Marianne to act as Héloïse's companion, accompanying her day to day while silently memorizing her features to paint in secret. Through these meetings, the two women form a friendship and eventually a romance that transcends boundaries of class and sexuality. Tragically, Marianne is forced to create the one object that will ensure the end of her blossoming relationship with Héloïse. Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel deliver engrossing and elegant performances. Lilies Films/Hold-Up Films/Arte France Cinéma Starring Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, accompanied by an almost entirely female cast, the film is a powerfully acted LGBTQ+ romance that studies power, memory, passion and desire through the eyes of women. Despite its 18th century setting, the film unflinchingly examines modern themes of gender, class, sexuality and reproductive rights -- all of which suffocate under a repressive patriarchal society, yet flourish when those strict confines are removed. Noted as a feminist film that banishes the male gaze, reinterprets the classic Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and subverts expectations of the master/muse relationship, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a rare feminist triumph. With its nuanced themes, exquisite cinematography and emotionally resonant performances, it's a beautifully moving film and you're sure to have a profound and unforgettable cinematic experience. Or, if you're like me, you'll just sob in front of a theater full of strangers and not even care. Either way, you're in for a treat. (And while you're at it, I will probably be watching it for the umpteenth time.) Portrait of a Lady on Fire won the Queer Palm at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Lilies Films/Hold-Up Films/Arte France Cinéma Portrait of a Lady on Fire was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The film lost that top honor to Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, but won the Queer Palm, becoming the first film directed by a woman to win the award. Sciamma also won the award for Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2019. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is just one of our CNET experts' favorite movies that's available to stream now. You should also explore our full rundown of the best movies on Max, Netflix and Amazon Prime. Plus, stream our favorite horror double feature on Netflix. More movie recommendations:
Cosmopolitan
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
The 16 Best Movies by Female Filmmakers
There's a well-worn (read: tiresome) myth that there just aren't that many great films directed by women. We've gathered here today to shatter that illusion into a million glittering, high-frame-rate pieces. From dreamy indie gems to Oscar-anointed powerhouses, these are the female-directed films that critics adore, film students dissect, and your friend with the Letterboxd addiction is using to impress boys in Brooklyn. This list is far from exhaustive—but it's a solid start. Céline Sciamma's slow-burn queer romance between a painter and her subject unfolds on the windy edges of 18th-century France, simmering with erotic tension and serving some of the most beautiful visuals committed to film. Also, zero men. It's perfect. Stream Now Come for Paul Mescal's short shorts, stay for the devastating emotional autopsy of memory and fatherhood. Charlotte Wells gives us grief as memory, and love as a camcorder flicker. You won't cry until three days later in the shower. Stream Now A dreamy, melancholic portrait of suburban ennui and adolescent mythmaking. Still her most haunting—and debatably best—film. Stream Now Agnès Varda made existential dread look chic before it was cool. This French New Wave classic follows a pop singer in real time as she awaits medical results—and questions everything. Black-and-white, but make it deeply interior and defiantly feminist. Stream Now Now tell me why Twilight feels like an indie. Say what you want, but Catherine Hardwicke kicked off the YA vampire craze with blue-tinted angst and Kristen Stewart's best lip-bite acting. The remainder of the franchise was helmed by a rotating selection of men, but hey, at least we had Forks. Stream Now Chloé Zhao turns economic collapse into a spiritual odyssey, while Frances McDormand poops in a bucket and finds transcendence on the open road. Bleak? Sure. But also strangely liberating. Stream Now Ava DuVernay's blistering documentary connects the dots between slavery and the modern prison-industrial complex with clarity and conviction. Required viewing that doubles as a cinematic mic drop. Stream Now A Western for the modern era, Campion uses the genre to explore repression, queerness, and toxic masculinity—plus, Benedict Cumberbatch plays a cowboy with layers (of emotion and textiles). Stream Now Lorene Scafaria's stripper crime saga is Goodfellas meets Magic Mike, with pole-dancing as economic resistance. in this film is a moment, a movement, a manifesto. It's also a recession story, which feels…timely. Stream Now Possibly the quietest horror film ever made, Kitty Green captures the banality of evil via printer paper and passive-aggression. A single day in the life of a junior assistant at a Weinstein-esque firm becomes a subtle warning about complicity and silence. Stream Now A bisexual panic attack of a film, Emma Seligman traps us in the most claustrophobic Jewish funeral this side of Curb Your Enthusiasm and lets anxiety do the talking. If you've ever been trapped at a family function with your ex and your sugar daddy, you'll relate. Stream Now Kathryn Bigelow's high-octane war thriller drops you into Iraq with a fuse already lit. It's testosterone cinema, sure—but filtered through a woman's gaze that interrogates addiction, masculinity, and the futility of control. Stream Now This is coming-of-age storytelling at its sharpest and most specific. Greta Gerwig's semi-autobiographical teen dramedy is a perfectly imperfect ode to mothers, Catholic school, and Sacramento ennui. Every line is a quote, every feeling a gut punch. It's not boring—it's Sacramento. Stream Now A talky film that shouldn't work—but absolutely does. Sarah Polley's Mennonite #MeToo chamber drama is essentially a 90-minute moral philosophy debate—and it's riveting. Quiet fury, radical forgiveness, and the power of choosing your own exit. Stream Now An iconic meet-cute on a basketball court, this coming-of-age film is singular. It's a sports movie that is also a rom-com that is also a generational Black love story. We still quote 'double or nothing.' Stream Now Eliza Hittman crafts an odyssey out of necessity in this quietly radical, observational tale. Two teens, one unplanned pregnancy, and a bus ride to New York that becomes a study in sisterhood, strength, and the systemic failures of reproductive care. Again, timely. Stream Now
