Attraction pulses through this intense, moving and utterly devastating study of an impossible romance in 18th-century FranceFollow our countdown of the 50 best films of 2020I’d been briefed that Portrait of a Lady on
fire was good. That it was cerebral as well as sexy, beautifully shot and acted and brilliantly scripted. That it didn’t flinch to examine the subservience of
Women in 18th-century
France – and, perhaps, rather more recently. But that any manifesto was only gently waggled.
Related: Portrait of a Lady on Fire review – burning desires and flashes of Hitchcock