It is quite a known and agreed
idea that all sorts of art including movies from France have a special place
when it’s regarding love and passion. However right at the start of reviewing
this already controversial movie I must say that France has overdone it this
time. I believe that Blue is the Warmest
Color (from this point onwards I’d call as BWC) does have potential to be a
masterpiece in one hand but due to some very evident and painful negativities
it has lost its rightful place.
The lead character Adèle (Adèle
Exarchopoulos ) is a young and beautiful literature student who seems to be
living the normal French life. But after a brief relationship with a fellow
student who actually cared for her truly she realizes that men are not capable
of igniting her passion. Searching for her desire Adèle meets Emma (Léa
Seydoux) at a gay bar and they become extremely close. Adèle discovers love and
passion from Emma and she completely melt in front of her.
It is important to understand
that this is not the first movie made based on gay love and this will not be
the last. The world will be seeing more and more of the kind in time to come
and my worry is that does them have to be this detailed to prove a point. The
last of this kind which I can recall which was pretty decent and beautiful was
Kids are All Right (2010) from Hollywood. And another good example was A Single
Man (2009) starring Collin Firth which was very powerful. But BWC crosses the
fine line between art and porn not only once but several times proving that the
movie is not actually made for art lovers but men who like seeing naked woman.
In my opinion a movie is a movie until it keeps its secrets and once everything
is revealed it turns in to something else. Not only sex but some other things
like dancing, eating spaghetti, taking a shower (naked) is presented with
lengthy scenes and detail which directly takes a toll at the duration of the
movie which is exactly 3 hours.
Why I like this movie is for two
reasons. One is the incredible and passionate chemistry between the lead roles
(which I believe that could have being achieved even without the detailed sex
scenes). But the true magnet of an attraction is Adèle Exarchopoulos (yes her
screen name and real name is both the same) who does a fine job at acting. The
director’s relationship towards her through the camera frame is very evident
and her emotions pour out of her pretty eyes and lips nonstop. While the
director tries to spice it up a bit more by showing her rear side a couple of
times (with and without cloths) it’s her face that makes the painfully slow
three hours worthwhile. There is nothing extraordinary to mention about
cinematography other than the lighting used in bedroom scenes that was quite
certain to give the viewer best viewing pleasure.
After I was done with BWC the
inner arguments I had was ‘if’ this story was about an ordinary man and woman
couple would that be this talked about. And ‘if’ the director has decided to
remove some of the details and keep only the essence of it will it still be
this controversial. The answer for both arguments I got was a no.
Original title: La vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2
Genre: Drama | Romance
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
