{"id":28249,"date":"2014-02-18T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T13:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/?p=28249"},"modified":"2018-03-15T23:04:11","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T12:34:11","slug":"movie-review-blue-is-the-warmest-colour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/2014\/02\/18\/movie-review-blue-is-the-warmest-colour\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review – Blue Is The Warmest Colour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blue-Is-The-Warmest-Colour-Review-Logo\"<\/h2>\n
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– Summary –<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Director :<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Abdellatif Kechiche
\nYear Of Release :<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2013
\nPrincipal Cast :<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Adele Exarchopoulos, Lea Seudoux, Catherine Salee, Aureliene Recoing, Anne Loiret, Benoit Pilot, Alma Jodorowski, Salim Kechiouche.
\nMajor Award Wins :\u00a0\u00a0 2013 Canne Film Festival:<\/span><\/strong> Palm d’Or.
\nApprox Running Time :<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 179 Minutes
\nSynopsis:\u00a0<\/strong>Adele meets Emma, a blu-haired young woman in a gay bar, and the two begin a relationship.\u00a0<\/strong>
\nWhat we think :<\/strong>\u00a0 A stunning performance by Adele Exarchopoulos, and a terrific script and direction from\u00a0\u00a0Abdellatif Kechiche make Blue Is The Warmest Colour<\/em> a defining coming-of-age story for this generation. Sexy, raw and powerful, there’s little more I can say other than to ensure you see this film at least once. If you’ve ever been in love, been confused about love, or had your heart ripped from your chest and stomped on, this is a film you need<\/em> to see.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

**********************<\/p>\n

It’s not all about the sex.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Okay dudes, time to sit up straight and let me give you a piece of advice. As a man, a manly man, a man with hairy bits and who manscapes less regularly than Sean Connery at a Vaseline convention, I’m here to admit that\u00a0 a slight bit of misogynistic curiosity got to me before I watched Blue Is The Warmest Colour<\/em>. I’m as red-blooded as the next heterosexual male, and I’ll be damned if I don’t mind a bit of lesbian action here and there (frankly, if I was a chick, I’d<\/em> be a lesbian too!), so for a film to come out that contains\u00a0some lengthy sequences of girl-on-girl action, I figure that’s a film I ought to see, right? The film, based on the graphic novel by Julie Maroh, tells the story of a young teenage girl who falls hard for another, a blue-haired vixen with whom they share some passion, excitement, and the inevitable breakup one always sees in dramatic work like this. It’s not<\/em> a pornographic exploration of lesbianism, not in the least. So as one hot-blooded dude to another, let’s get that set right up front. Blue Is The Warmest Color<\/em> is not<\/em> a film of gratuity – it’s a sensitive, creative, strongly developed work of art, and should be appreciated as such. I’ll touch on “those scenes” throughout my review, but let it be known that the film doesn’t dwell on it any more than is necessary to draw some emotional connection from.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Yeah,
Yeah, it’s blue. Today is Thursday, right?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plot Synopsis Courtesy Wikipedia:\u00a0<\/strong> Ad\u00e8le (Adele Exarchopoulos) is a French high-school student whose female friends gossip about boys and encourage her to go out with a boy who is attracted to her. They date and have sex, but she is dissatisfied and breaks up with him. While walking on the street one day, she passes by a woman with blue hair and instantly falls in love. She goes with some gay friends to a gay dance bar, but leaves and walks into a lesbian bar, where she experiences assertive advances from some of the women. The blue haired woman is also there and intervenes, claiming Ad\u00e8le is her cousin. The woman is Emma (Lea Sedoux), an advanced Fine Art student. They become friends, but Ad\u00e8le finds herself even more in love with Emma. After a while, she confesses her love to Emma, who reciprocates. They have sex and begin a relationship. Ad\u00e8le moves in with Emma, and they meet each other’s families, although Ad\u00e8le does not explain that Emma is her lover, presenting her as a tutor whom she regards as a friend.<\/p>\n

\"You
You know you want it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The original comic, a superbly drawn and written piece by Julie Maroh, contained some of the most heartbreaking dialog about relationships – straight or<\/em> gay – that I’ve ever read. It’s forthright, confronting and – if you’ll forgive the pop-culture lament – real<\/em>. Translating literature to film is, as proven by the raft of cinematic bombs scattered across the decades, an affair fraught with danger, probably none moreso in recent times than comic-book-to-film efforts. While novel literature is typically drawn from the imagination of the reader to form a mind’s eye image of the characters involved, comics present a more defined visual aesthetic to compare on film, and sometimes the end result of a director’s best intention isn’t the one audiences connect with.\u00a0With Blue Is The Warmest Colour<\/em>, however, director\u00a0\u00a0Abdellatif Kechiche has captured not only the uplifting and tragic elements of the comic, but somehow magnified them within the context of the film. He’s changed some things – in the comic, the character of Adele is named Clementine, and the comic book has a vastly more tragic outcome than the film, while some minor character\u00a0alterations to streamline the\u00a0story within the\u00a0context of the film medium have also been made.<\/p>\n

\"Cool!
Cool! It’s season 18 of Big Brother!!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blue Is The Warmest Colour<\/em> is a terrific character study of love and loss. Led by the exceptional<\/em> performance of Adele Exarchopoulos, the film meanders through the highs and lows of a human relationship, a searing and powerful character study that brings with it some moments of true heartbreak. The sting of that raw, true first love, followed by the eventual cooling of ardor and inevitable hurdle of disillusion, concluded by the wrenching agony of a breakup, are all superbly realized by Abdellatif Kechiche’s magnificent film. Yes, it’s very<\/em> French, with plenty of realistic sex (which some conservative wankers might present as “pornography”) and liberal dialogue, but at its heart is a moving account of one young woman’s journey from innocence into adulthood. Whereas a lot of films try and shoehorn sex into a film where it’s probably not needed, and make it more graphic or pointed than it needs to be, here the sex seems legitimized somehow, as if it’s designed to move the story forward. I’m not sure how watching two girls have sex for ten minutes (not once, but twice!) could possibly “move the story along”, but within the context of the film, it works well.<\/p>\n

\"Oh,
Oh, but you said I could be on top this time!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The film is driven by the performances, and again<\/em> I point the spotlight at Exarchopoulos, who gives an Oscar-worthy portrayal in her role as Adele<\/span> (weird they both have the same name, though).\u00a0Exarchopoulos has that snotty-nose, quivering lip style of crying down to a fine art, and pulls out all the stops in the film’s final third, where her relationship with Lea Sedoux’s Emma begins to fraacture and collapse. She’s earnest, warm and utterly<\/em> compelling, able to project the school-teen angst and confusion about her sexuality in the opening half, and provide compelling “adult” emotional states in the close. Frankly, even though Sedoux might be top billed, she’s second fiddle to Exarchopoulos. Sedoux, meanwhile, ain’t a slouch in the acting department either, although I did find Emma to be somewhat too aloof for my liking (personal preferences and all), but gives a good account of herself nonetheless. She’s older and wiser than Exarchopoulos, but still looks youthful enough to pass as a girl only a year or so senior; Sedoux and\u00a0Exarchopoulos have a chemistry together that is palpable on screen, and their scenes together are just beautifully done.<\/p>\n

\"Oh
Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The film is rather long at nearly 3 hours – yes, three hours<\/em> for a dramatic work that doesn’t involve\u00a0goblins, hobbits, explosions or spacecraft! Imagine! – but it never\u00a0drags. The story is involving, the characters are involving, and\u00a0at times I\u00a0just felt happy and privileged to be allowed to witness this journey of self discovery. Adele’s\u00a0“everywoman”\u00a0arc, from confused teenage girl to confident\u00a0young adult, could apply to anyone (man or woman), and\u00a0the character behaves like a real person thanks to Abdellatif Kechiche’s screenplay, co-scribed with Ghalia Lacroix. The\u00a0way Adele and Emma’s relationship commences, off the back of Adele’s initial, hesitant\u00a0dalliances with both\u00a0straight and gay\u00a0relationships in the past, is given the kind of raw, sweaty realism needed to contrast the visual style Kechiche employs throughout. Kechiche keeps the camera tight in on faces a lot<\/em> of the time, throughout much of the dialog scenes, refusing to cut to wide angles, which provides the film with a more intimate, personal nature, as if we’re eavesdropping on a relationship we perhaps shouldn’t. It’s the honest performances by Sedoux and Exarchopoulos, coupled with the effortless direction of Kechiche, that gives this film its power.<\/p>\n

\"Don't
Don’t look at me like I’m the hottest lesbian in the room!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blue Is The Warmest Colour<\/em> is one of the best<\/span> films I’ve seen in years. Sharp, honest and raw, bringing an unbridled sexuality and flaming hot view of\u00a0 relationships, Blue<\/em> isn’t a film about being gay or straight, nor is it a film about social or gender lines – it’s a film about love, hope, loss and grief, all stunningly performed by the two brilliant leads. It’s a human<\/em> film, an emotional<\/em> film, and is easily<\/em> a contender for one of the best films of 2013.<\/p>\n

\"Full-Marks\"<\/p>\n

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