Blue is the warmest color is a 2013 french
film directed by Abdellatif Kechiche and starring Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa
Seydoux. The film is adapted from the French graphic novel Blue Angel. The film
first premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and many festival goers were
shocked by the lengthy and graphic sex scenes, nonetheless the film went on to
win the Palme D’or, and not only was its director awarded, but also its main
actresses. The lead actresses are only the second and third women to win the
award.
Adele plays Adèle, a 15 year old student
living in a suburb of Lille with her parents, and studying for her Bac, she meets
a male student with whom she has a casual fling, but feels nothing, and despite
having passionate sex with him, she finds herself sobbing unconsolabley
afterwards. Another female student makes advances on her, advances that Adèle
returns, and Adèle, thinking them to be in a relationship, pursues the fellow
student, the student tells her that she is not lesbian and doesn’t want a
relationship with her. Finally, Adèle meets Emma, an art student with blue
hair, studying at the Beaux-Arts. Adèle launches into a hedonistic, passionate
relationship with Emma, much to the dismay of her schoolfriends, the only
friend who doesn’t treat her with judgement is Valentin, another gay student.
Their relationship continues, and they each decide to introduce the other to their
parents, Emma’s parents are open, understanding of their relationship and
approving, they also see the need for people to follow their dreams. Adèle’s
parents on the other hand do not see the true nature of their relationship and
ask pointed questions about Emmas boyfriend and feel that it is important to
have a career which makes money. Despite their differences in background and
age, Adèle and Emma continue their relationship.
A few years later Adèle is working as a
primary school assistant, and is still in a relationship with Emma, now an up
and coming artist. Adèle enjoys her work as an assistant and hopes to become a
teacher, Emma is now moving with a different crowd, and has a new group of
cool, arty friends. Adèle and Emma now has sex far less frequently, and Adèle,
feeling left out, starts a tryst with a fellow male assistant. When Emma finds
out, she is livid, and throws Adèle out of her home, Adèle is distraught, and
as the months stretch on, reconciliation seems impossible.
The films lead actresses are superb, and
Cannes was perfectly justified in awarding the palme d’or to the actresses as
well. Adèle Exarchopoulos plays a young woman who is fragile, complicated and
naive, and who falls head over heels in love. Her actions though not always right
are justified by the audience, because we feel just as head over heels in love
with our heroine does as Emma does. Adèle’s performance is powerful and raw, and
almost impossibly real, sont, tears and all Adèle is as real a figure as ever
was shown in a motion picture. Léa Seydoux plays Emma, a confident and creative
young woman. Seydoux’s character, despite not having quite the emotional range
of Adèle, is also very real. Her character is also less conflicted, and perhaps
Léa Seydoux ability as an actor is less evident from this picture, but her
portrayal of a beautiful and intoxicating young woman is powerful none the
less.
Blue is the Warmest Color is a very long
film, at just under three hours long, a film with so little story may seem like
drag, but it is not. Previously this length of film was limited to action films
and epics, Blue is the Warmest Color is a film which not only has a relatively
small cast, but also a rather small plot, the film is far from boring, and much
of the screen length is due to the use of numerous long takes, and the fact
that the film is told in two parts. As I stated Blue is a film which uses
numerous long scenes, in some ways the film is like a play, and most of the
scenes are simple two person dialogues about love, life and innocence. Blue is
the Warmest Color is a film which doesn’t need action scenes or violence to be
enthralling, and which manages to rely solely on dialogue, and the emotional
journey upon which the film takes the audience, and the realization of this emotion
fully justifies the films length.
Director Abdellatif Kechiche manages to
successfully champion the extreme close-up. For those of us who abhorred Les
Misérables for its misuse and overuse of the close up, Blue is the Warmest
color gets it right. The close ups are used here to show us the pure emotion of
the story, and to showcase the viewpoints of the characters. He also manages to
successfully use the handheld camera, a technique that has become popular in
recent years, used mostly in order to make films appear ‘artistic’. Often this
only has the effect of making the film seem pretentious and the effect is
irritating if misused (see The Place Beyond the Pines). Handheld camera work is
most effective if it is used out of necessity and not for artistic measure. Seeing
as much of Blue is the Warmest Color was filmed on location in Lille, and many
of the sets that were used were rather small, the use of handheld filming
probably derives from necessity, and not from any desire to create anything
resembling art.
The color blue also features heavily
throughout the film, as may be expected. At the start of the film, and
throughout the first chapter, Emmas hair is blue. Adèle’s bedroom is also blue,
and many of the films pivotal scenes take place there. In the second chapter of
the film, Emmas hair is blonde, however the color still features heavily, in
the café where Emma and Adèle meet, Emma is seated in front of a blue wall,
which frames her with a blue halo, and in the final scene, Adèle wears a blue
dress, and a bystander notices that blue is a color which suits her well,
perhaps a reference to the fact that despite them no longer being together,
Emma and Adèle will always be soulmates.
I could not write a review of this film
without referring to its numerous sex scenes. Many audience members at Cannes
were shocked by these scenes which are long, unedited and graphic. The scenes
are so realistic and so explicit that members of the cast were forced to
explain that the scenes were in fact stimulated. The film contains numerous sex
scenes and they are frank, graphic and overt. What I love about these scenes is
that they are unabashed and sexual, and nothing is implied à la Brokeback
Mountain. The first scene is between Adèle and a boy she is seeing, the scene
is notable for the fact that it contains the first glimpse of erect penis that
I personally have ever seen in a mainstream film. All of the subsequent scenes
take place between Emma and Adèle, and feature exclusively in the first
chapter. The scenes, while perhaps shocking, serve to show us the passionate
nature of the relationship, and the absence of these scenes in the second
chapter show us how their relationship has become less passionate, and how
Adèle feels left out.
Overall, Blue is the Warmest Color is a
fantastic film, it is passionate, dark and poetic. The film is a fascinating
insight into the relationship between two people and manages to successfully
translate the powerful emotion that comes with heartache to screen without
becoming soppy or melodramatic. The film contains powerful performances from
its leads and frank, graphic sex scenes that are honest and realistic. Blue is
the Warmest Color is a film which is as real as any film can be. Rating: A+
No comments:
Post a Comment