Portrait of a Lady on Fire is directed by Céline Sciamma – on an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
It takes a lot to stand out among the numerous films about the AIDS crisis, but Campillo has managed to craft one that’s certain to stand the test of time. Distinctive characters and an astute understanding of what made ACT UP so memorable shines through in 120 BPM.
The Unknown Girl sees the directors yet again flirt with their beloved recurrent theme of criminality, here taking their most overt detour into procedural thriller territory to date.