Noémie Merlant makes looking at someone feel like work worth watching. Her concentrated attention helps give Portrait of a Lady on Fire its intimacy; we rate her highly, while Lee shows how easily an underwritten part can waste her.
Fi1m perspective
In Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Noémie Merlant's Marianne studies her subject with the concentration of someone doing a job. The painting becomes believable because she takes the looking seriously. Adèle Haenel's Héloïse responds to that scrutiny, and both actors let us notice small changes without making every glance demand interpretation. We felt almost shy in their company, because their efforts to understand one another make the attraction so personal. Céline Sciamma gives those exchanges time, and Merlant rewards the attention without appearing to ask for it.
Her breakthrough in Heaven Will Wait (2016) preceded the international recognition of Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The work since has not simply repeated Marianne: The Innocent (2022) gives her Clémence, a comic role suited to her timing and physical expressiveness. In Todd Field's TÁR (2022), she plays Francesca Lentini, personal assistant to Cate Blanchett's conductor. She has also directed Mi Iubita Mon Amour (2021) and The Balconettes (2024). We would not want every director to ask her for another Marianne.
Lee (2024) shows the less rewarding side of supporting work. As Nusch Eluard, Merlant is among the French friends given a picnic, a few reunions and little to play. Marion Cotillard and Alexander Skarsgård are short of material too; the problem belongs to the writing rather than to one actor. The film is handsome and careful, and Kate Winslet supplies force and humour at its centre. It is a poor introduction to an actor whose strongest work depends on sustained exchanges.
Sciamma remains the director who makes the strongest case for that attention in the work we have reviewed. Even in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the restraint sometimes feels over-managed, as though the exchanges have been arranged a little too carefully. Merlant and Haenel keep the tenderness convincing, which matters more than the occasional sense of control. Start with Portrait of a Lady on Fire, then try The Innocent before deciding she should spend every film quietly studying someone.
Biography
Noémie Merlant is a French actress and filmmaker. She was born on 27 November 1988 in Paris and raised in Rezé near Nantes. She trained at the Cours Florent acting school in Paris after working as a professional model.
Merlant is known for her roles in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) as Marianne, TÁR (2022) as Francesca Lentini, and Lee (2024) as Nusch Eluard. She has also appeared in The Innocent (2022) as Clémence Genièvre and Paris, 13th District (2021) as Nora Ligier.
She won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Innocent (2022) and received César nominations for Most Promising Actress for Heaven Will Wait (2016) and Best Actress for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019). Merlant made her directorial debut with Mi Iubita, Mon Amour (2021).
