In light of recent events--yes, those events that just took away constitutional rights from women, we decided to do a flying lead change and cover the aptly-named Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The year is 1770, and a woman must make a decision about her body, her future and what she will do about it. But this is no grim tale of bloody hangers and sepsis (though the latter must surely have been a risk in these days and now *these* days), but a world where women are supportive of one another, do not flinch from the social or personal gaze in so private a choice, and take control without fanfare. This film is about many things, and we were hoping to save it for a rainy day, but alas that rainy day has come. It is an exquisite and relevant film about being a woman, an artist, a human being. A terrific article on the theme of abortion in Portrait of a Lady on Fire: https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/portrait-of-a-lady-on-fires-abortion-scene-was-radical. More about artist Hélène Delmaire https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7084-the-brush-behind-the-film-how-painter-h-l-ne-delmaire-created-our-portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-cover.
