Have you ever lived a moment in which there's nothing else than you, a scene, and tears running down your cheeks? That feeling that gives you chills down your spine and gives your heart the final push to realize that what you experienced was the purest form of a masterpiece? Portrait of a Lady on Fire has represented this to me both of the times that I've watched it, but today more than ever, it has knocked my mind out with a terrific experience that I lived through the very bones of my expectations.

This is, in my eyes, a perfect movie. A perfection that shines through the exquisite simplicity that characterizes its setting. It is a masterpiece and that is an unchangeable fact for me.

One of the first things that my friend did during the movie was to compare it with Blue Is the Warmest Color, a movie cursed by its male gaze and the twisted mentality that comes along with it. He said, in other words, that only a woman could've made a movie like this, and make it work like it does, holding itself up through its sincere storytelling and more importantly the centered objective of the film. I do fully agree that it results impossible to imagine a movie around this that is not developed under the female gaze, specifically Céline Sciamma's. The direction and gentleness with which she treats the story, the characters, their bodies, their feelings, even the way their lips wrap into a passionate dance is immaculate, that invited to desire through the purest form.

The whole film feels like a painting yes, but I don't say this just only because of the gorgeous long shots that it characterize the movie, but because the setting locks us into a single frame: their restricted interaction and their eagerness to experience what they have never explored — loving as it was meant to be.

“When you asked if I had known love, I could tell the answer was yes. And that it was now.”

I Love You

Three words never spoken. Because love is not a phrase or a simple confession, love is the moment in which silence catches flames. It's an unspoken epiphany, a secret if I may, one that many share, but only a few unlock. It is an orchestra, a song that you can't explain. It is the presence that gives life to a painting. Love is the most beautiful way to give consent to life...

The best cinema experience I've ever had... Added to my Top 25 and currently competing for the first place.