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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 14 december 2019
Forbidden passion smolders in vivid ‘Lady on Fire’

By JOCELYN NOVECK French director Celine
Associated Press Sciamma, known for far
“Do all lovers feel they’re more gritty and contem-
inventing something?” asks porary films, has found a
Heloise, a young woman way to make a period film
experiencing romantic that feels so vital, at mo-
passion for the first time. It’s ments it seems it could
a beautiful line, but it’s also spontaneously combust.
emblematic of the spirit of Which is exactly what hap-
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” pens to Heloise’s dress at
a film in which everything one point, a captivating
feels stunningly fresh, raw and disturbing image that
and new. explains the title of this film.
And it’s all happening in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is
the 18th century, to boot. a story of unexpected pas-

This image released by Neon shows Adèle Haenel, left, and Noémie Merlant in a scene from
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”
Associated Press

sion between two women. world — and yet the out- pear in the film.) When the
But it’s more than that; the side world knows very little wooden crate carrying her
film explores this forbidden about them. Sciamma, blank canvases falls into
love against a larger back- who won the best screen- the ocean, she dives reck-
drop of the possibilities for play award for this film at lessly into the waves to re-
female self-fulfillment in Cannes, seeks to honor trieve it. Her canvases are
the late 1700s, through the these forgotten women. her life.Marianne arrives
story of a young artist, Mari- It’s Marianne (a vibrant on a rocky beach (the
anne. Noemie Merlant) that we craggy coast of Brittany,
Female artists of the time, meet first, the only wom- its wild beauty wonderfully
Sciamma has explained, an traveling in a boatful captured here) and climbs
produced work that hangs of wordless sailors (virtu- a cliff to an isolated cha-
in museums around the ally the only men who ap- teau. q

Post offices to be named for Marilyn

Monroe, Ritchie Valens

resolutions to rename the
two facilities.
Monroe was raised in Van
Nuys, attended Van Nuys
High School and was dis-
covered while she was
working at Van Nuys Air-
port during World War
II. She starred in films like
“Some Like it Hot,” and
“The Seven-Year Itch.”
Monroe, whose real
name was Norma Jean
Baker, was 36 years old
when she died of a drug
overdose in 1962.
In this Sept. 9, 1954 file photo, Marilyn Monroe poses over the Valens attended San Fer-
updraft of a New York subway grate while filming “The Seven nando High School and
Year Itch” New York.
Associated Press was discovered in 1958
at the American Legion
Associated Press News reported Thursday hall in Pacoima. His hits
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pres- that the Van Nuys Civic included “La Bamba,” an
ident Donald Trump has Center postal depot will adaptation of a Mexican
signed resolutions renam- be renamed the Marilyn folk song. A film about his
ing two post offices in the Monroe Post Office. The life with the same title was
Los Angeles area in honor Pacoima post office will be released in 1987.
of Marilyn Monroe and named the Ritchie Valens Valens was 17 years old
rock ’n’ roll legend Ritchie Post Office Building. when he died in a plane
Valens. Democratic Rep. Tony crash in Iowa with two
The Los Angeles Daily Cardenas introduced the other rock stars in 1959.q