This year's Palm d'Or winner is a coming of age story about a teenage girl, Adele (the literal title in French is The Life of Adele), who discovers her homosexuality and begins a relationship with Emma, a college student. For a while, I was thinking this was a good but fairly unremarkable entry into the queer cinema canon, but, over the film's three hours, well, you see why the long running time was necessary. It is just a very detailed picture of a life. It feels more real than most films - it feels like more time has past and that we've just felt Adele's growth. Frankly, I didn't feel the length of it at all - I wanted it to be longer. It really helps that the actresses are so perfect. Adele Exarchopoulos is simply fantastic - this is the performance of the year, really. Her face is so expressive. The film takes place over several years, and you really do see her grow from a child to an adult. Lea Seydoux plays Emma. Her role is less demanding, but she's still great in it. Now, the biggest story of this film has probably been the graphic sex scenes. My opinion on them: I actually do think they're a bit too graphic, gratuitous and almost pornographic. I try to justify them artistically in my mind, and I'm afraid I can't. There's a plot point near the end where you kind of have to know that the girls' sex life was fantastic, but I'm not sure we had to see it in anywhere near as much detail as we did. They're without a doubt awkward to sit through, but they don't ruin the film either.
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zetes3 November 2013
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kriddirk8 November 2013I waited some days to review this title after seeing this film. This movie triggered me thinking about love and life and I waited to give it my neutral review. I am watching movies since the latest 30 years and I have to say ; This movie is special !! After 30 years of seeing all kind of movies I have narrowed my scope of movies to see. They have to be special, show me something different, give me ideas to think about or to evaluate in my own life. So, movies like World war Z is not directly my style. This movie although is one of the best love stories I have seen. No unnecessary emotional or cuteness parts, each part of the story is real and genius. It is the soft moments of a love story, the hard moments bringing to the screen. The movie is made in away you are in the skin of Adele and Emma ( can't remember the actress names ). They take you with them in their love story, their feelings. That is also the reason that the 3 hours of the movie is not too long at all. I was surprised it took 3 hours when the film ended. The movie handles the passion between them, a passion that many of us forget over the years in a relation. That passion is also expressed in about 3 sex scenes, 3 scenes which are quiet honest and direct. Some people will find these scenes too long ( one of them could take 10 minutes ), but I find it necessary to establish your follow up of the passion they have between each other, so that when things goes worse you also are one with the situation.
This movie, natural, honest about love, life and sexuality could be attended by children of 12 and more, if they are explained things of life ( they also can see all kind of war movies ). Many will say "Oh, lesbian movie, what the hell you are". This is a movie for all of us, independent of your orientation being gay, hetero, bisexual, It is a Love story.
Each feeling, being angry / disappointment / sad / etc , can be seen on the faces of Adele and Emma and by this I have to say that these actresses are just superb, in fact I don't know another word to say extraordinary acting. It has certainly been very difficult for them to make this film. The director : Bravo to him.
There are some scenes which are just fantastic : The first meeting between them, the encounter between them in the lesbian bar in which Adele is in a strange world as adolescent. The tree scene, where they actually get in love both of them. The level of a good love story with all it's feelings and situations has been raised to a higher one. Who can ever do this better.
And the last remark. The film treats the love story, it's personal problems, the passion, but does not handle the problems which can have their family or friends, not in detail.
And now, go and watch it ! -
howard.schumann17 November 2013Though Blue is the Warmest Color, winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, contains graphic depictions of sex, it is not a voyeuristic exercise but a complex, deeply intense film that elevates one young woman's personal struggle into a drama of universal relevance. Adapted by Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix from the novel by Julie Maroh, Tunisian born French director Abdellatif Kechiche's fifth feature looks with piercing eyes into the coming-of-age years of Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and her relationship with the more mature Emma (Lea Seydoux), a relationship that does not fit anyone's pictures.
First seen as a 15-year-old teenager, Adèle's growing pains are magnified by her attraction to women and she is forced to defend herself against the bullying accusations of her high-school classmates, even though she is confused and uncertain about her identity. Adèle's face radiates an attractive childlike innocence and openness that is appealing to both sexes and she does not want for friends, but her first relationship with fellow student Thomas (Jeremie Laheurte) does not get off the ground. Her feelings about Thomas seem to answer the question asked by a teacher lecturing on Pierre de Marivaux's novel La Vie de Marianne, "How do you understand that the heart is missing something?"
After being attracted to a striking looking woman with blue-tinged hair passing by on the street, Adèle meets Emma at a gay bar, learning that she is an aspiring artist and an individual of uncommon intellectual tastes. The chance encounter leads to a relationship and the depiction of an explicit sex scene that is notable for its believability and the raw emotions that are expressed but has, unfortunately, become a source of finger pointing in some quarters. Although the chemistry between the two lovers is unmistakable, Kechiche makes sure that we notice how different their backgrounds are, displaying contrasting scenes at the home of both parents.
Their relationship is openly accepted by Emma's bohemian parents who persuade Adèle to eat oysters and drink white wine, though seafood is the one type of food she had said she dislikes. In contrast, the nature of their liaison is never brought up at Adèle's more working-class home where they eat spaghetti and drink red wine. The passage of time is seamless and we have to catch up to the fact that three years have gone by. Adèle, now 18, has moved in with Emma and has fulfilled her ambition to teach young children, while both families seem to have disappeared into the woodwork.
After the first blush of sexual ecstasy has run its course, however, their incompatibility surfaces and is painfully present at a dinner party of Emma's friends when Adèle has to play the role of servant and gets an uncomfortable feeling about Emma's attraction to another woman. Eventually, their social and cultural differences get in the way and jealousy and feelings of betrayal begin to replace mutual satisfaction.
Blue is the Warmest Color is unique in its openness and honesty about same-sex relationships although we never really experience the outsider status in society and emotional toll that such relationships normally bring. The performances, however, are so perfect that we are never conscious of anything except the beauty of two human beings discovering the joys of authentic intimacy and a connection that can keep providing enough emotional richness to last a lifetime. -
Loving_Silence24 September 2013I just want to start off by saying this is an amazing film about young love that is actually honest with its audience. There are countless of films about people falling in love, but when you see "Blue is the Warmest Colour". You realize just how rare films are that make a sincere attempt to catch what it really is like to fall for someone, without sentimentality, forced cuteness or cheap emotional manipulation. This is the rare love story that has real emotional truth about it. The fact that it is about two women who fall for each other is almost secondary to the way the film catches the universality of what it is like to fall in love and maintain the relationship. "Blue is the Warmest Colour is a naturalistic and touching film, whether you're gay, straight, bisexual, or whatever orientation. This is a film that can give you relationship advice and life guidance no matter what your orientation may be. It isn't an indulgent film bringing only a unique gay relationship to light and nothing more, and it isn't an ode to "coming out" and stockpiled clichés of "being different." It shows how an interaction with a person can have a truly provocative impact on you as a person.
The struggles between the two lovers is depicted in breathtaking detail. The director masterfully captures all of the turmoil and hardship going on between Adele's and Emma's relationship. The movie's long running time does not effect the film at all because you are so immersed into their characters. The sexual realization of Adele is perfectly shown in the movie. She is confused and doesn't know what she wants, it is a typical teenage problem. This movie is ultimately about Adele and her struggles to find her true self. The transformation that she experiences is utterly engrossing to watch. The film's nearly three hour running time is devoted to showing the growth of her character and it is absolutely amazing to watch it unfold right in front of your eyes.The intimate scene's between Adele and Emma are nothing short of miraculous in their depth and their honesty. The conversations are heartfelt, and the pain is evident and shared. It's realism of the world we live in is honest and raw.
The movie owes so much of it's emotional power to its two fantastic actresses. They really bring it their all in this. I've never had doubts of these two performances, the characters felt like real people and you felt so much for their relationship. Their emotional hardships feel completely real. The character's flaws and insecurities feel so authentic because you actually believe them as real human beings. We never lose sight of their chemistry and devotion to one another, even in the most difficult of times. The two of them are like fireworks, waiting to explode out. I cannot recommend this film enough to those of you out there who are interested in seeing this. This is one of the wisest and least condescending films I've seen this year. I congratulate the director, Abdellatif Kechiche and the two actresses, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux for an emotional and spiritual journey that had me compelled to the screen for 179 glorious minutes. -
I saw this film on the last night it was playing at my local theater and I jumped on the opportunity. Once it was over I realized how smart of a decision it was. I read a review of the film that said something along the lines of, "the trouble with this film being 3 hours is that you want to watch it for several more." I couldn't agree more with that statement. The story, along with its characters, moves the film along to the point where it didn't feel like 3 hours.
This film was probably the most emotionally intense and powerful movie I've seen in a very long time. You believed everything you were seeing and it forced you to feel it along with the characters. As much that has been written about this film, the acting can not be overstated. These two actresses are a revelation in this movie.
It seems that whenever the topic of homosexuality is covered by a film it usually contains some sort of hate crime or bias against homosexuality somewhere in the story that the film's characters have to face and overcome. What's refreshing about this film is that there is a dash of that but its in the beginning of the film and never becomes the focus of the conflict with the characters. The film acknowledges that bias is there but brushes it aside to say that there is something bigger and more important at play with the characters. Really nice to see that in a film.
This movie ranks as one of the best films I've seen this year and am so happy I had a chance to see it. -
smdilke10 November 2013I saw this film as a preview, at 11am on a Sunday morning, whilst nursing a horrible cold and it was the best decision I have made in a long time.
The film offers several basic and well used premises: the Eliza Doolittle/Henry Higgins: why won't you let me educate you thing, a dichotomy between big city and small city ideas and ideals and the well trotted out first love idea. However, the way this film is presented is entirely original. Kechiche sets it in Lille, a town in Northern France, full of provincial living and entirely captures how it is in general in this town - when the characters walk around you feel that he understands what he is talking about.
The film is about desire, desire to eat, desire to sleep with someone, desire to dance and it is portrayed within a first relationship between two women. The two women are fantastic and the plot has amusing little french jokes interspersed between the very emotionally demanding relationship that has you gasping at points. However the story is largely about one of them, Adele - and you feel over the three hours, that you get to know her, what she is about, what she finds attractive, what she wants (or what she thinks she wants). The actress playing her has a wonderfully expressive face and she needs it for the amount that happens. When she cries, when she eats, when she sleeps you believe her.
Much has been said about the sex scenes, which are very graphic, however these are entirely relevant to the plot and the furore seems to be about the actors criticising the director for pushing them too far, however, without this pushing this film wouldn't be nearly as good.
When it finished, and I realised that it had been three hours I couldn't believe it.
It was a revelation. -
thomas-e-louise15 October 2013I have never seen a film about a face until Blue. Almost every emotion the face can show is expressed by the leading actress: longing, satisfaction, shame, allure, hunger, anger, grief, boredom, suspicion. I was worried after the opening scenes that the film was one of stark realism despite its whimsical title. However, after a short time, it took on its poetical style, and in the street, just before Adele sees Emma, we hear the first sound of music. From then on the film is an exercise in cinematic eloquence.
In one particular scene, Adele wanders into a lesbian club still under the impression of the blue-haired woman she had seen days or weeks before. The club is small and packed and she can't seem to find her bearings. Adele makes it to the back of the club which resembles a dark abyss. She has the look of someone at once desperately searching and giving up the search. Then, behind her, the top of Emma's head appears from somewhere out of the shadows as a looming orb of dark blue. You don't see where Emma comes from; you don't see her face or body, just a color. When Emma sits down at the bar with Adele their first exchange is instantly dynamic and absorbing. If you compare this conversation with the talk Adele engages in with her classmates at the beginning , it's easy to admit that Adele is far more mature, thoughtful, and intellectually eager than her peers.
To appreciate the subtleties of this scene we have to recall one of the first moments in the film when Adele's teacher asked her class if love at first sight feels like the gaining of something or the losing of something. Is it possible that the director is also trying to answer this question?
The sex scenes will doubtlessly make some uncomfortable; such authenticity is something rarely seen on screen, but they are neither gratuitous nor pornographic. There's nothing more gratuitous than the old lie that's been told throughout cinematic history of woman as a passive sexual being, and the women in this film are anything but passive.
Contrary to other reviews, no single sex scene in Blue is 10 minutes long. There are three sex scenes and together they add up to 10 minutes, but the scene everyone is talking about is at most five minutes, unless the film they showed at Cannes if different from the one making the film festival circuit. -
solomonsky22 December 2013I envy people who haven't seen this film. Easily the best film I've seen this year. Everything in it is generalisable, you can recognise bits of your life in the various stages. (For me it's the cafe scene, my God, Adele says she used to eat scabs, in that scene she's sticking a dagger in her own heart and twisting it- it's excoriating, naked and raw. Sado- masochistic, almost. She's asking a question she knows the answer to and the answer will torture her).
It's an emotional voyage, the sex scenes are not that important, there's more lascivious eating than sex, the leads are absolutely incredible. This film really, truly moved me. I hope Adele's OK. -
The seventeen year-old high-school student Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) lives with her middle class parents in France. Adèle dates his schoolmate Thomas (Jérémie Laheurte) and they have sex, but Adèle does not feel pleasure. She goes with her homosexual schoolmate Valentin (Sandor Funtek) to a gay bar, where she meets the lesbian Arts student and painter Emma (Léa Seydoux) and soon they have a love affair. But love is eternal while it lasts.
"La vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2" is a movie of lesbian exploitation disguised in art. The love story between Adèle and Emma is too graphic and there is no art in watching two women sucking, licking and caressing each other many times for a long period in excessive sex scenes. The camera work is awful, with close up most of the time. The screenplay forgets Adèle's parents and should be shorter and shorter. The lead actresses have good performances and the story of lesbian love and rejection is not bad. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Azul é a Cor Mais Quente" ("Blue is the Hottest Color") -
michaelvillar4 September 2013I was fortunate enough to see this movie at a screening last night in Los Angeles. It was amazing, everything about it amazing! Kechiche is something special. He works on something until he gets it right, and the only time he gets it right is when he feels comfortable with what he has shot. At the Q&A afterward with Kechiche, Seydoux and Exarchopoulos, I learned that they shot some of the takes 100 times!
His methods are unconventional. Because of this you are able to experience cinema in a whole new light. The acting was so real, so moving; these actresses gave everything they had, I'm just blown away with what I viewed. My hat is off to Exarchopoulos and Seydoux as actresses. No matter how painful and difficult the process must of been to make this movie in the end I think that they would have to agree it was worth it. To know that you gave everything is something special, and something that I hope I can look back to on my career and say I felt as well. Kechiche, call me, I want to be in your next film!! -
garyslegg16 December 2013I went to see this film after a colleague had recommended it and I must say I was very disappointed. The acting is fantastic, Adele Exarchopoulos is a revelation, but it is really only her performance that makes the film worth watching. At three hours long it could have had an hour cut out and been a better film for it. Someone else has said there's a total of 30 minutes of sex scenes; well, if that's correct its about 20 minutes too much. The sex scenes are gratuitous and become an over indulgence. For large parts of the film nothing happens, for example, there are a number of scenes where Adele is teaching - these add nothing to the plot. Prior to this we see her go on student marches, nothing of significance happens. Her male friend is gay - a tired cliché! The whole of the last scene is made redundant by the scene before. Irritatingly one of the significant moments of the film is cut short - the cause of Adele having a fling with a male colleague is skipped over even though this has dire consequences. Frankly, "Lost and Delirious" covers similar ground but does it much, much better. Films are about telling stories and that art has been lost in this movie to such an extent I was glad when it came to its end.
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rubenm11 November 2013While watching 'La Vie d'Adèle', I regularly thought about 'Entre les Murs', the winner of the Palme d'Or in Cannes five years ago. Not only because in both films many scenes take place in classrooms, but also because they both have an ultra-authentic feeling.
Many of the scenes in this film look so real that it's almost hard to believe they are acted at all. Take for instance one scene in the beginning of the film. Five schoolgirls are chatting about a boy who is standing a few meters away, and who is clearly interested in one of the girls. The conversation, and the way the girls behave is so natural, it's almost impossible to script this. And in fact, many scenes are hardly scripted. Much is improvisation, and the actors were encouraged to do whatever they felt like doing, whatever came natural to them. Director Kechiche apparently shot for several months and came up with 800 hours of footage.
The result is stunning. This is a movie that is not only reminiscent of 'Entre les Murs', but also of the films made by the Belgian brothers Dardenne. These are films showing the real lives of real people, without make-up, without scripted lines and without any cinematographic glamour. There are so many scenes that make you feel like you're peeping into other people's lives. Take for example the scene of Adèle eating spaghetti with her parents, while watching television. Hardly a word is said, but this little scene tells more about Adèle's life than fifty lines of dialogue.
The best thing about the movie, apart from the directing, is actress Adèle Exarchopoulos. Her performance is an extraordinary accomplishment. She shows every possible emotion: indifference, astonishment, grief, anger, joy, sadness, and yes, sexual excitement, without once giving the impression that the emotion is not real, that she is just acting. In Cannes, both she and Léa Seydoux were awarded the Palme d'Or, but is is Exarchopoulos who steals the show.
The film is a classic coming-of-age drama. Adèle is a high school girl who falls in love with art student Emma. They have a passionate relationship, but it is doomed because working class girl Adèle doesn't fit in with Emma's snobby friends. The two girls really don't have very much in common. Adèle gets a job as a nursery teacher and is passionate about her work, but this doesn't resonate with Emma who thinks she should develop a more creative passion, like writing. The best scene about the difference between the two girls (again without words) is when Adèle is washing the dishes after a party, while Emma is in bed reading a book about the painter Egon Schiele.
The fact that the lovers are both female is in fact irrelevant for the film. Their being lesbian is hardly an issue. Much has been said about how 'lesbian' the movie really is. The answer is: it is not. Some viewers have complained that the sex scenes are unrealistic and shown from a male perspective. This might be true, and it is completely understandable, given that this film is not meant as a statement about lesbianism. In fact, one of the sex scenes shows Adèle with a boy, and is filmed in much the same way. There is in fact a lot of very explicit sex in the film. This serves the story, but the length of the scenes and the way they are filmed suggest that director Kechiche secretly hoped for a bit of controversy.
The film is almost three hours long, but doesn't feel that way at all. Many scenes are long, but they are such a joy to watch you almost regret that they are not even longer. Many reviewers and watchers have said that, after watching the movie, they feel that they really have got to know Adèle and the way she feels. I can only agree. -
wryterzblock5 September 2016I put off seeing this for the longest time because of the three hour run time, but tonight I finally sat down and checked out this movie, which so many people have raved about. Yeah, about that...
Aside from the fact that I almost turned off the movie ten minutes in because I have a severe aversion to open-mouthed chewing (indeed, the main character does pretty much everything open-mouthed in this flick--she reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite) AND the fact that when all was said and done this wasn't much different than a large percentage of foreign LGBT flicks except that it took three hours to get to a rather predictable ending, this was not a terrible movie. Long and occasionally slow, yes. But not terrible. I even shed a tear or two, and those don't come easy for me when watching movies, so at least there's that.
One last possible gripe is I'm not sure how I feel about the way bisexuality is presented in this movie. But when I look at it as this one particular situation between this one particular fictional couple, it sits a little better with me.
Overall, I'd say it's definitely worth watching. I'll probably even watch it again someday, though I'll be making use of the fast forward button when I do. -
adamkustura15 January 2014To put it in as simple terms as possible, Blue Is The Warmest Colour is a story about Adèle, a high school student who finds herself confused and troubled with her sexual identity. After passing a blue-haired girl on the street who catches her eye and an even more confusing, spontaneous and upsetting encounter with a classmate she finds it all to curious and enticing when a close, male friend takes her to a gay bar, she follows some girls to another bar nearby where she sees the blue- haired girl again. A short conversation sparks a relationship that carries us through the rest of the film.
Well, where to start?
To start with, this film is exhaustingly long. 3 hours is too much for so much useless, meandering exposition. It serves nothing other than to keep us away from a plot that is so thin you could go make yourself a cup of tea and come back 20 minutes later and nothing would've happened to push the story along. I'm sure there is an excellent 90 minute film in there somewhere if the editors had been more ruthless in their cutting and the director wasn't so preposterously self indulgent.
The sex scenes are unavoidable, exploitative and sickening within the context of the films creation. The major sex scene that everyone talks about took a gruelling 10 days to shoot and was only the actors 2nd shot on-set together, they literally didn't know each other and were suddenly put together to perform these scenes for an imposing, frustrated director.
Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos have both stated that the 3 hour film doesn't really show how much they shot, that the director would do hundreds of takes of even the most simple scenes, extend scenes and shoot for extremely long periods of time and would become enraged if they laughed even once out of one hundred takes.
Knowing how the actors felt about it (thankfully they have been vocal in interviews about how horrible and unpleasant the experience was) how uncomfortable they were with unchoreographed sex scenes; sex scenes are almost always choreographed, shots and various angles kept to minimal length so that actors are more comfortable and that the experience is as desexualised as possible. They have spoken about how they felt powerless to say anything about it because "The director has all the power. When you're an actor on a film in France and you sign the contract, you have to give yourself, and in a way you're trapped." "In America, we'd all be in jail." – Léa Seydoux
This is perversion and abuse of power in the truest sense. The fact that Kechiche wrote the adaptation, produced and directed the film, apparently even financed some of it himself tells me all I need to know about his intentions. Even Manohla Dargis of The New York Times has written that it "feels far more about Mr. Kechiche's desires than anything else".
I feel awful for Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos for having to endure this "horrible" 6 month shoot and for having to work with this director, of whom they have said they would never work with again. They deserved better than this because their performances are incredible given the situation that they had to work in.
And finally, I also feel bad for the characters Adèle and Emma, their story deserved so much better than this. -
pmuchteros5 November 2013Cinematic orgasm. Cinematic. Orgasm. Put the words together and separately, it does not matter actually. I was watching the film with a sense of bitten apricot in my mouth, so from time to time I kept checking if indeed something was dripping from my lips . In any case, you can feel all kinds of dripping in this garden of delight and from many different angles. A deep diving into puberty, into the raw desires of youth, above the thunderous victory of human need. Adele is the personification of youth, just in time when it begins to grown. That exact moment when the juices of love are instantly aggressive and the human body seems like a fruit with the heart as a kernel. When you are in the midst of immortality, gaining the illusion of eternity, just before the fruit is eaten, shortly before the kernel sits at your neck with the bitter taste of rejection, while you greedily swallow life, which seems so inexhaustible. I left my local cinema with the feeling of a hot lump in my throat and stomach. As a teenager in love and disappointed at the same time. And from that moment I keep seeing little hearts and stars everywhere. I keep seeing Adele everywhere.
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saintjeremia14 November 2013I certainly blinked when I found out this movie was 3 hours long, especially considering that it won the Palm d'Or where many winners have a slow and painful plot. This movie on the other hand does a great job keeping every scene riveting through great dialog and riveting emotions. I would compare many of the scenes in this movie to Tarantino scenes where scenes take on a life of their own. Cleverness and awkwardness were dispersed in a way to make it seem real and ultimately human. I felt wonderfully disappointed when certain scenes ended. The actresses held nothing back in their body language and added much to the moment-to-moment importance of their character development.
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Xstal5 June 2022Seldom will you find, such adoration, unrefined, as a beautiful romance, takes us with it on its dance, though the rocks that taunt us all, cascade, descend, to cover all, but the passion and desire, leave you breathless and on fire!!!
Perfect, in almost every way. -
This is a very tender , passionate tale of young love that I found fascinating . The three hours will simply fly by as you follow the life of Adele who falls in love with an arty student . The lead actress is stunning in both looks and believability , and you are swept along with her on her journey . This is acting on the edge...powerful and dramatic...worthy of many awards . The story rattles along at pace , and hardly has time to fully explore all the issues that are on show . Adeles family and friends for example simply disappear after a while , which was odd , as they were an important part of the anti-lesbian feeling present early on in the film . Nonetheless , its almost impossible to find fault . I didn't shed a tear at any stage (but came close a few times ) . The now infamous sex scenes were in my opinion incredibly moving and central to the plot (however they were rather long...men will be used more to a "Wham Bam 30 seconds approach " ! ) You should all go to see this ...male and female alike...though perhaps don't take your Mother !
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The_Film_Cricket18 November 2013Forget, for a moment, that "Blue is the Warmest Colour" is the story about two women in love. Here is a movie so universal in its themes and so broad in its emotions that it could really be about people of any gender, race or sexual orientation. While Hollywood films simply prattle on about love while merely copying sitcom nonsense, here is a French film that will mean something to anyone who has ever had the pleasure and the pain of being in love.
"Blue is the Warmest Colour" was the winner of Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival last May, and has been the center of media attention due to a pair of scenes depicting the two female lovers engaged in graphic sex that has – how does one put this nicely? – a very French sensibility. It is true. We see the lovers naked, laid bare with little to hide, particularly during the first of two encounters, an eye-opening seven-minute scene of raw sexuality in which the bodies twist this way and that in a manner that might make some viewers uncomfortable. Yet, while those scenes are striking, it is the film that surrounds these two women that captures our imagination. For all the news of scenes of sweaty sexual fumblings, the most tantalizing organ on display is the human heart.
Based on a graphic novel by Julie Morah, "Blue is the Warmest Colour" tells the story of Adèle and Emma, two intelligent and heartfelt people who, through simple cosmic fate, fall desperately in love. The movie sees their relationship over the course of a decade, mostly through the eyes of Adèle, a pretty 17 year-old high school girl with pouty lips and an expression that suggests a great deal of unhappiness. She's that very rare teenager who always seems to be waiting for something. Her classmates live in the moment, but Adèle seems to be searching for some kind of meaning in her life. As the film opens, her eyes suggest that she is lost in the world. When the movie is over she will have the same look in her eyes, but for a completely different reason.
At school, she has a circle of friends but they seem distant somehow. She tries to touch the social strata but nothing really engages her. She begins dating a nice guy named Samir. They talk and before long she shares his bed. Something in her eyes in their post-sexual encounter seems sad. The parts are there but, in her mind, there seems to be a sexual component that is missing here. The relationship doesn't last long and she breaks his heart.
Then something happens. While walking with her friends one day, she passes a blue-haired girl on the street walking the other way. It is only a passing glance but, for Adèle, it leaves a startling impression. This parting glance stays on her mind for days and days until one night, while out with friends, she makes an unexpected left turn into a gay bar hoping the find the girl. She does, and they begin to talk. The girl is Emma, a pretty college student who is studying art. Emma and Adèle talk a lot. They talk about art, about music, about philosophy, about themselves. They talk about their dreams. Adèle reveals that she wants to be an elementary school teacher; Emma wants to be an artist. Days later, on a park bench, they pause in their conversation and share a kiss. They go home and have sex. Afterwards they talk some more. Adèle finds her life turned around, especially by her former friends who cruelly interrogate her for hanging around with a lesbian – a reminder that even as open as we are about homosexuality, a social stigma still exists.
What is happening between Emma and Adèle is a building relationship that will last for several years. The miraculous thing is that the story is constructed in such a realistic way that we never know where it is going. Director Abdellatif Kechiche shoots the film in a way that makes us feel as if we are standing in the room with the characters. There are no glossy, pretty images. When they sit at dinner, we are sitting at the table with them. Kechine gets in close, and allows us to get to know the characters intimately. He is an expert at photographing the landscape of the human face in close-up so that every emotional tic is on display. We come to care about the fate of these two girls and it pays off in the film's climax, a heart-rending moment that will break your heart as the lovers realize what their fate must be. The weight of that moment stands for the fate of all lovers in crisis. What they do with that moment determines the destinies for both.
To understand what a remarkable achievement this film is, you have to see it in relation to most other movie love stories. Other films want to throw problems at the characters that are there to be solved. The problems for Adèle and Emma are borne out of their personalities. Not one moment in this film feels phony or contrived. It moves with the rhythms of real life and ends on a welcomed, life-goes-on note that leaves us with something to talk about afterwards. This is one of the best films of the year.
**** (of four) -
EskeRahn21 February 2017Long film that feels even longer! Whew ... Nice photo, light and cut-work, but an director who absolutely do not know the fine art of suggestions, preferring explicit sex scenes in porn-style. And yes as an old pig young naked pretty girls are pretty to look at, but... And to top it of in the break we were 'treated' with a close-up still of a woman with her face in the crotch of another... The second half, however, is less poor than the first.
The Committee must have had limited selection for this to get the prize - or the jury were sex-hungry.
If they had cut between an hour and an hour and a half out (mainly sex scenes), it would have been better! -
shksze199114 February 2014Blue is the Warmest Colour has become one of the most controversial films of the past year on the basis of its frank depiction of lesbian sexuality alone, but the film is so much more than that. The sex is merely a device used to accelerate the plot and enrich the realism of the film. The film presents a very beautiful and ultimately devastating love story that far transcends the hyped bedroom proclivities of the two main characters.
Its central character is Adele, played by Adele Exarchopoulos in a fearless, breathtaking performance. Ever word she utters, ever expression on her face, it all felt so sincere. She is the heart and soul of this film. We get to know her insecurities about her appearance, her experimentation, confusion and ultimate realisations/awakenings with sexuality and her development from girl to woman. Her relationships, with the break ups and make ups, her plans for her life all become the focus of the 187 minute run time. Honourable mention goes to Lea Seydoux, who provides an enchanting performance as the free spirited, artistic Emma. She provides an interesting contrast to the indecisive and sometimes confused Adele in that she knows exactly what she wants in life - what pleases her and what doesn't.
The film is quite heavy on symbolism with the colour blue. It is very prevalent in the film, appearing most obviously in Emma's hair, in the club Adele visits, in the fare she uses at the rally, in the classroom she teaches, in the dress Adele wears during her last encounter with Emma. The cinematography itself is beautiful and rich, full of earth tones and exquisite colour, giving the film a dreamy haze.
The rather long run time may detract you, but don't let it. There is never a dull moment and the movie progresses like a breeze, every single scene is crucial and well constructed. Do not miss this, it could arguably one of the best film's of 2013 and certainly one of the most honest depictions of a relationship between two people in cinema in recent memory. -
Turfseer29 January 2014Okay I'm generalizing, but in so many cases, If you're looking for an intense film about relationships, French films trump American ones, because the French just seem inherently to be the experts when it comes to love and passion. French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche's intimate dissection of a romance between two young women is no exception. His film won the Palme d'Or, the top award at the Cannes Film Festival. This was the first time a director and two actresses collectively received the award—by a panel led by such film industry luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Nicole Kidman and director Ang Lee.
The film features a smashing performance by Adèle Exarchopoulos who has the same first name as the film's protagonist. When we first meet Adèle, she's a high school student confused about her sexual identity. She sees a young blue haired woman on the streets and has dreams about her. Prodded by her gossipy classmates, she has a brief, unsatisfactory relationship with a boy, but soon breaks up with him after an encounter with a female classmate, who first kisses her on the steps outside of the school. The female classmate tells her that she wasn't serious about the encounter but Adèle is taken to a gay bar by a male gay friend but she soon wanders off to a lesbian bar, where she meets the blue-haired woman she had seen out on the streets earlier.
The young blue-haired woman is Emma (played by an equally intense Léa Seydoux), an older art graduate student. They begin a steamy affair, culminating in a series of explicit sex scenes which has garnered quite a bit of publicity for the film. The second Act occurs after a passage of time—now Emma is trying to break into the art world as a professional artist and Adèle has begun a job as a kindergarten teacher. Director Kechiche pulls out all the stops in depicting the burgeoning romance between the two women.
The problem with much of it is that it's just too drawn out. That not only includes the sex scenes but other scenes such as when the each women meets one another's parents (Emma's upper middle class parents know that she's gay and are immediately accepting of Adèle; but Adèle's lower middle-class parents are left in the dark as to the nature of their relationship). Mr. Kechiche can't resist closeups of each character discussing how much they enjoy the pasta they're eating. Another earlier scene, where Emma and Adèle engage in a long intellectual discussion about Sartre and other sundry topics on a park bench, also seems to go on and on.
But I was grudgingly willing to put up with the incredibly drawn out spectacle to see what the final outcome of the relationship was between the two lovers. Before the final blowup, cracks in the facade of the relationship, begin to emerge. Adèle, working much more simply with children, begins to feel out of place in Emma's more sophisticated world of art professionals. Finally, with Emma spending more time in the art world, Adèle has a brief fling with a guy, a fellow male co- worker from her job at the school. . Emma finally figures out that Adèle has been cheating on her and she flips out. She throws Adèle out of her house and tells she never wants to see her again. I like how Emma was depicted in the scene where she dumps Adèle, as her lack of flexibility and unwillingness to forgive the vulnerable Adèle, showed her to be cold and overly controlling. In other words, there's a multi-dimensionality to the character.
The rest of the film I would say is anti-climactic. Some years pass and Adèle spends a good deal of time by herself, trying to get over her relationship with Emma, but not quite doing so. She finally meets with Emma after quite a bit of time has gone by, who ostensibly has forgiven her. Adèle attempts to force herself on Emma in a restaurant but Emma is now committed to another woman and rejects her. Flash forward again— Emma invites Adèle to her art exhibition, where Adèle finally accepts the fact that Emma has moved on. Her run in with the actor (who's now a real estate agent) doesn't seem to go anywhere.
'Blue' is a three hour movie but it probably could have been more effective with 45 minutes of less footage. I wonder if the sex scenes were pared down, the film would have garnered as much publicity as it did. The end of filming was not the end to the controversy. Not only did union members complain about director Kechiche over working them but Exarchopoulos and Seydoux indicated that they never wanted to work with Kechiche again as they indicated that he treated them roughly while shooting the film.. Seydoux went as far as saying that she felt like a "prostitute" during the film shoot. Kechiche was offended by his actors' comments and at one point was quoted as saying that he hoped the film would not be released. There was also talk that Kechiche was going to sue Seydoux for her comments.
Probably both parties overreacted. Exarchopoulos and Seydoux knew what kind of film they were getting into, when they signed the contract to act in it and they probably should have known Kechiche was a perfectionist. On the other hand, Kechiche perhaps should have taken into account his actors' sensibilities and directed them a little more gently.
All in all, 'Blue is the warmest color', is a well-made film which captures the intensity of the intense relationship between two young women, who ultimately were not right for each other. The film needed to flow better and the editing was just not there. If you're willing to put up with the film's overall length, you will still be rewarded with some phenomenal acting and intense dissection of a relationship that ran its course. -
Arcturus198019 December 2014I am hard pressed to fault Blue Is the Warmest Color. My appreciation of it crescendoed in a way that had me question the essentiality of the entire 45 minutes or so before Adèle and Emma meet. I nonetheless have come to appreciate it as the deliberate development of the Adèle character and her circumstances. The walk-by and subsequent autoerotic scene are integral to the story.
I also questioned whether the protracted graphic sexual content was of an artistically neutral value, given how lust can otherwise be implied. Not that filmmakers should necessarily make a habit of it, but with so little left to the imagination, the right emotional responses were more readily evoked in other scenes. Ultimately, the film's unfailing naturalism demanded such sexual representations. It would not have made sense for the director to have been shy about the kind of film he was making.
Adèle is an understandably flawed character. Her sex life is dictated more by convenience than principle. This selfishness is at variance with her love for Emma and desire to benefit others as a teacher. Emma is more mature in age and mind. She is a truly likable character. Loving her so deeply is a credit to Adèle. One of the more thought provoking relationships ever put to the screen; I would need a horrendous case of dementia to forget it.
What a breakup scene! Not surprisingly the most difficult; it best exemplifies this tour de force of acting for the two leads. I could rack my brains to no end and not recall to mind a more effective scene. Adèle receives her comeuppance with heartrending disbelief and desperation. Emma's Sartrean resolution can be debated on its merits.
The taboo nature of their relationship is something of an eye-opener. France only legalized same-sex marriage in 2013, despite nationwide opposition. So, the depiction of homophobia is all too true, evidently. There is something wrong in the world we live in when a realistic treatment of the subject would have been essentially the same decades earlier.
This glowing review of mine had me call into question my own rating. It had been a 9/10, mainly because the film by necessity (as I now understand) has an unusually slow build up. I had intended for this to be a mixed review, but the more I meditate on Blue Is the Warmest Color, the more I appreciate it. The perceived negatives fell flat under the light of scrutiny. The supporting characters are well established, with Samir, the Arabic speaking actor as the standout. The music is good throughout. The anti-Hollywood, though somewhat open-ended ending is just right.
All in all, a brilliant, intense, and wonderfully unique film. -
Radu_A30 December 2013Maybe it's the hype. Hype always builds up your expectations. And the more you allow your expectations to build up, they're likely to be disappointed. But in the case of 'La vie d'Adèle', I'm pretty sure that this is not all to it, since I watched it with a Lesbian friend. And while it left me - a gay man in his 40s - totally indifferent, she hated it. This was supposed to be my 'save-the-best-for-last' movie of the year. Now it's pretty much my stinker of the year. Sure, I've watched far worse movies in 2013. I just haven't watched anything which disappointed me to such an extent.
We spent a couple of hours after the film discussing just what we didn't like about it. For her, the answer was easy because she owns the graphic novel by Julie Maroh on which it's based. I've read it meanwhile and understand her reservations. The book follows Adèle's diary and is therefore more introspective and emotional than the film. The reader gets a better idea how much time passes. The characters are drawn as normal women, decidedly less pretty than the actresses. The ending is completely different, much more tragical and hard-hitting - it's a mystery to me why Kechiche decided to change the story to such an extent.
And the sex in the book is - lyrical, that being what infuriated my friend most about the film. According to her, all that humping and moaning is just what she expected a straight male director to come up with - a fantasy of what Lesbian sex is like. Only women would get it right, like Donna Deitch in the classic 'Desert Hearts', or Lisa Cholodenko in 'High Art', or Kimberly Peirce in 'Boys don't cry'. The author Julie Maroh expressed a similar criticism, describing the sex scene as ridiculous.
I understand these frustrations since what I halfway expected to be a Lesbian 'Weekend', i.e. a film that takes the sensationalism out of gay sex and focuses on love, highlights the sex to push for controversy / interest with straight audiences. That's the only explanation I find for giving both female leads the best actress award at Cannes, even though Adèle Exarchopoulos has about three times as much screen time. People think it's courageous to show gay sex, so nobody cares if that depiction is actually accurate. Saying that the film expresses how natural gay sex is doesn't really help when you're gay - since we know that already, thank you very much.
Then again, the film won the Palme d'Or clearly for political reasons, since at the time there was a highly embarrassing campaign against gay marriage in France. So maybe homosexuals still have to welcome the lesser of two evils, condescending sympathy over pseudo-religious ignorance or downright hatred - but oh what a depressing thought that is. When such a thing happens to me - hearing 'watching that and that film made me totally understand that being gay is normal' - I'd like to respond 'that's like telling a black person you've seen '12 Years a Slave' and now understand what it means to be black'. But I don't because people who get this wouldn't make such remarks in the first place. They'd already understand that film is always an interpretation of reality, never reality itself.
However, my indifference to the film is more based on liking Kechiche's previous film 'Black Venus' a whole lot more. It showed all the ugliness of typical European racism (the 'scientific' kind), being about a Herero woman in the 19th century who is at first turned into a circus attraction, then an object of study, and finally - inevitably - a prostitute. What made this film so great was that it wasn't as much about a black woman stoically suffering her fate, but us Europeans with our ongoing tendency to categorize and thereby control all things foreign - the exact opposite of this film, where the spectator sees everything through Adèle's eyes, so if you don't buy into her views, you lose the movie (or the movie loses you).
All of this doesn't make 'La vie d'Adèle' a bad film, it's still a strong love story owing to the source material, but I can't help but wonder what so many people see in it. The performances may be intense, but they're not convincing if you've been in its character's shoes - and according to the actresses' statements it would seem that their intensity owes a lot to the director's erratic on-set behavior. Maybe if you don't watch many European films, or have never seen a Lesbian-themed film before, you can end up being taken so aback by the sex scenes - which, credit where credit is due, are carefully embedded in the story - that you'll go 'wow'. But if you're a cineast, if you know French film, if you know the LGBT film canon, or if you're just plain gay, then you can't help but wonder what all the fuss is about - and if the wonderful graphic novel wouldn't have turned out far more impressive, had it been adapted by a woman instead. -
Andy-2961 February 2014This widely acclaimed, almost three hour movie about adolescent lesbian love in a high school in France is nothing special in my opinion. Tunisian born director Abdelatif Kechiche has shown some sensibility in previous movies (for instance Games of Love and Chance) but this Cannes festival winner feels quite exploitative (his previous movie, Black Venus, was also nasty, disappointing and sensationalistic). The young actresses who play the lead (Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos), who are not porn actresses, appear in very explicit, apparently non simulated sex scenes (including masturbation, oral sex, fingering and doing the sex position popularly known as the 69). It would be interesting to wonder if a lesbian director (instead of a male director) would have filmed this story differently, perhaps less explicitly and more subtly. Interestingly, both actresses have complained after the film was released that they felt exploited during the filming and will not work with the director again. Based on a graphic novel.