Blue Is the Warmest Color

Blue Is the Warmest Color won last year's Palm D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, but it seemed all anyone wanted to talk about were the graphic sex scenes. As someone who is steeped in pornography, these scenes weren't anything more than I'm used to, but I have to admit, for a mainstream film, they were quite eye-opening. But they perhaps obscure the fact that the film is astonishingly good.

Stuck home yesterday on a snow day, I decided to take advantage of the time off and watched this three-hour film OnDemand. I told myself I could pause it and watch it throughout the day. But I was surprised to find that it went by rather quickly, and I watched it straight through.

The film is a love story, but it is also about the awakening, both sexually and intellectually, of its main character, Adele (Adele Exarchopoulous). When the film begins she is a typical high school student, gathering with her friends to talk about boys. One such boy takes an interest in her, and they end up going to bed, but she's not exactly thrilled, and breaks up with him. When a girlfriend flirtatiously kisses her, something awakens in her. She spots a blue-haired older girl and is instantly smitten, and later finds her in a lesbian bar (this scene is great--Adele wanders in and is like Alice through the looking glass).

This blue-haired girl is Emma (Lea Seydoux), an art student. The two form a passionate relationship, and we see just how passionate. The sex scenes are distinct from the rest of the film--I have to wonder if there's an abridged version somewhere out there, because they could be cut without a disruption in the plot--but I think they are necessary. It's important to know that their love for each other is keenly physical.

As the film settled into its third hour, I was wondering if a conflict would arise, but it does, and how. The more accomplished and intellectual Emma encourages Adele to have a more fulfilling life (she has become a teacher of small children) and one can get a sense of tension. Eventually Adele has an affair with a male co-worker, and Emma throws her out. This scene, and the one in which they reconnect years later, are brilliantly written and acted.

But the acting by the principles is great throughout. Exarchopolous, not even twenty when she made this film, is a revelation. With her sad cow eyes, she seems like an orphan in a storm, longing for contact. When she tells Emma that she loves her and only her, we believe it, and recognize this feeling in our own lives. An early scene has Adele fighting with her friends, who accuse her of being a lesbian. She angrily denies it, and not to get into sexual politics here, she may not be lesbian--she just really loves Emma.

Seydoux, though a secondary character, is also fantastic. I've only seen her in a few things, including Midnight in Paris, and she's clearly a young actress on the rise. Her barely contained passion in the restaurant reunion with Adele, in which she struggles to keep her libido in check, is masterful.

So this film is a turn on, sure, but it's much more than that. The director and co-writer is Abdellatif Kechiche, who is to be commended for excellent work.