Blue is the Warmest Colour

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR (LA VIE D’ADELE - CHAPITRES 1 &2) (18)

D: Abdellatif Kechiche

Wild Bunch / Quat’sous / France 2 Cinema / Scope / Vertigo / Radio Television Belge / Francotone / Eurimages / Pictanovo (Abdellatif Kechiche, Brahim Chioua & Vincent Maraval)

France/Belgium/Spain 🇫🇷🇧🇪🇪🇸 2013

180 mins

Drama

W: Abdellatif Kechiche & Ghalia Lecroix [based on the novel by Jul Marot]

DP: Sofian El Fani

Ed: Albertine Lastera, Camille Toubkis, Sophie Brunet, Ghalia Lacroix & Jean-Marie Lengelle

Adele Exarchopolous (Adèle), Léa Seydoux (Emma), Salim Kechiouche (Samir), Aurelien Recoing (Adele’s Father), Catherine Salée (Adele’s Mother)

This French coming-of-age drama was released in its homeland under the title “La Vie d’Adele” (The Life of Adele) which is quite literally the story which is presented.

Adele Exarchopolous plays the lead, Adele, a young art student who is struggling with her sexuality until she meets the free-spirited Emma & the two embark upon a relationship lasting several years, ultimately failing but affecting the two women in very different ways.

Like 2018’s Call Me By Your Name, the film  presents a gay relationship with the same sort of respect as a straight relationship, but there’s a more believable conflict here, as you’d expect there would be as a realistic, dramatic depiction. 

The film did court some controversy for its raw presentation of its sexual scenes, to which the two main actresses were allegedly very poorly treated by the film’s director.  Nevertheless, Adele Exarchopolous and Léa Seydoux deserve all the plaudits for this film, delivering two truly captivating and convincing performances, and while Léa Seydoux went on to much greater success, Adele Exarchopolous is the one with the truly remarkable breakthrough performance with this film.

Surprisingly, the film missed out on an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, but was given some recognition at the BAFTAs.

7/10