Seventh Row recently named Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire as one of the top 10 films of the 2010s; her earlier film, Tomboy, also appeared on our list of the 50 best films of the decade. The two leads of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant, also made our list of the 50 best performances of the decade.

Return to 18th-century Brittany for a romance for the ages with the first ever book to be written about French filmmaker Céline Sciamma, her process, her body of work, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Published in 2020, this is the first book-length study of Céline Sciamma’s films, and the only non-academic book.

Portraits of resistance is an essential companion to Portrait of a Lady on Fire and the essential guide to Céline Sciamma. Portraits of resistance contains interviews with the cast and crew, as well as essays on the film and Céline Sciamma’s career. This was also the first book ever published to be dedicated entirely to Sciamma’s work! She’s been making amazing films for over a decade now, so we’re proud to honour her work in this way.

In the book, we explore how, in Céline Sciamma’s films, social outcasts take centre stage. Their gaze is centred as they learn to be themselves through interacting with nature (much of Tomboy takes place outside; the ocean is the backdrop to the story in Portrait), inhabiting women’s spaces (the changing rooms in Water Lilies; hotel rooms and bedrooms in Girlhood), and making connections with people who understand and accept them (the best friends in Water Lilies; Laure’s/Mickäel’s relationship with their younger sister in Tomboy; Girlhood’s girl gang; the romance between painter and subject in Portrait). Yet even these safe spaces cannot hold forever against the weight of societal prejudices and injustices.

The book Portraits of resistance, contains interviews with Céline Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire actresses Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, as well as Sciamma’s sound editor. On top of that, essays from EIC Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and writers Lena Wilson, Ben Flanagan, and Angelo Muredda will delve into what makes Sciamma’s films so special. Read entire chapters on Water Lilies (2007), Tomboy (2011), and Girlhood (2014), plus several essays on Portrait, focusing on its exploration of the gaze of the two central lovers.