“Kechiche wanted to tell a raw, honest, and beautiful story of a couple,” writes Jeurgen, “but without removing his hetero, male perspective, he greatly hindered the depths the film could have achieved.” Displeased with the adaptation, Julie Maroh described director Abdellatif Kechiche’s treatment of the story’s love scene between Adèle and Emma as “a brutal and surgical display, exuberant and cold, of so-called lesbian sex, which turned into porn, and made me feel very ill at ease.” Michelle Juergen, writing for Policy Mic criticized the film’s male gaze.
#BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR LESBIAN SCENE FULL#
Yet many critics have taken issue with the movie’s full frontal elements, labeling its now infamous sex scenes as voyeuristic and unrealistic. It’s one of best movies I have ever seen, not because of its graphic sexual content, but because it deals perfectly with the combined terror and joy inherent in falling in love for the first time with someone of the same sex. The two meet by chance, fall in love, eat spaghetti, and engage in approximately seven minutes of on-screen tribadism. Adapted from Julie Maroh’s graphic novel Blue Angel, the film tells the story of Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a sexually confused high-school student, and Emma (Léa Seydoux), an older art student with blue hair. Last night I saw Blue is the Warmest Color-the Titanic-length French film about young lesbian love that won this year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. When he's not sharing long-winded thoughts on movies, he's probably sharing long-winded thoughts on baseball or reading about weird sea creatures.Adèle Exarchopoulos (left) and Léa Seydoux in 'Blue is the Warmest Colour'
It is rated NC-17.Ĭarman Tse is a native of Northern California but not one of Those Guys that hates on Los Angeles (despite his affection for the Giants over the Dodgers). But while a lesser film might go so far as to stigmatize these sexual impulses as an impediment towards growth, Blue is the Warmest Color acknowledges sexuality as a part of adult life and even dares to suggests its necessity.īlue is the Warmest Color opens today in Los Angeles and New York. Where a younger Adèle learns of the beauty of the world and of her own sexuality, she must now cope with adult obligations and the loss of this innocence. In a sense, Blue is the Warmest Color is the narrative of two coming of age stories. For the duration of three hours that go by in a breeze, Exarchopoulos and Seydoux are both fantastic as Adèle and Emma swing through the highs and lows of their relationship. Domesticity and occupational obligations sap the passion out of Adèle and Emma’s lives.
#BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR LESBIAN SCENE SKIN#
Emma’s skin and kisses literally radiated sunlight before, the film’s visual palette takes a darker and colder tone. It is certainly an uneasy watch, if only because the audience is led to feel that it is spying on something to be shared only between two lovers.īut as the first love burns the brightest, its inevitable decay makes up the second chapter of Adèle’s life. Their romance is consummated in the infamous pièce de résistance of the film, the 10-minute sex scene between the two lovers that showcases the intimate passion between the two. Older and experienced, Emma and the romance that sparks between them transform Adèle.
A brief romance with a male classmate (Jérémie Laheurte) and eventual deflowering leaves her wholly unsatisfied and all the more insecure among her peers.Ĭatching Emma’s (Léa Seydoux) brilliant dyed-blue hair in passing, it is literal love at first sight for young Adèle. From the onset, the only aspect of her life we can pin on her is a dedication to her studies that lead her towards a goal of eventually becoming a teacher. A story very much in its genesis as the French title implies, Adèle’s life story is only in its genesis when we are introduced to her. Underneath it all, Blue is the Warmest Color is the coming of age of 15-year-old Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos). The original (and less silly) French title of the film tells a much more focused and grounded story: La vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 & 2. A few aspects of the film lend itself to suggesting grander ambitions, with its lengthy run time of almost three hours and an excessively wide aspect ratio of 2.35:1. If one is so inclined to learn of the supposed ordeal that was the making of the film and the aftermath, then all you need to do is to read about director Abdellatif Kechiche’s insanely paranoid open letter. I suppose it comes with the territory of earning an NC-17 rating for its graphic depiction of lesbian sex. Ever since it won the prestigious Palme d’or at Cannes, the controversy that has been following around Blue is the Warmest Color has made the whole affair much larger than the actual scope of the film itself.