Rewatched Apr 17, 2021 Darren Carver-Balsiger’s review published on Letterboxd Cinema can only be judged in relation to the context in which you watch it. I first saw Blue is the Warmest Colour as a teenager and it deeply affected me. I also remember rewatching the second half at around 3am on some drunken night at university when everything had gone wrong, which admittedly was quite often at university. It's been over five years since then and I haven't seen it since. It's weird to look back at films that meant a lot to you and realise they might not hold up. With maturity I'm now more attuned to the criticisms of Blue is the Warmest Colour, especially those from the lesbian community. Yet this film still means a lot to me. Obviously I approach this film as a man, but I think Blue is the Warmest Colour taps into so much more about growth and early adulthood than just lesbian love, and so it has a lot of universality. I know that the conditions on set during filming were unacceptable, and I'd rather the film didn't exist than be made through harassment and violating labour laws. However in the contexts in which I previously watched Blue is the Warmest Colour, I found it to be the most profound and precious experience. Watching it now, I don't feel quite the same. But even with that caveat, it's hard to stop loving something that used to really matter to you. No matter what I will always hold Blue is the Warmest Colour in high of growing up and self-discovery can be so compelling if done right. In Blue is the Warmest Colour, the pain that lead character Adèle goes through seems so real and believable. I think it's because so much is naturalistic. Adèle's runny nose, tears, and messy eating all feel like something usually avoided in a world where cinema usually demands people look perfect. Here we see truly messy, irrational people. They're flawed, unsure of themselves, and get attached to each other in damaging ways. With a constantly pressing camera that captures all the awkward and small moments of life, Blue is the Warmest Colour is intoxicatingly intimate. I could get lost in its world is the Warmest Colour is about an intense love, one that begins almost from first sight. It makes desire complicated, depicting the initial nervous joy of love and also the pain of its deterioration. Adèle's journey through life and confusion is easy to feel, because it seems so real and relatable to the process of entering adulthood. It's also worth saying that this felt like a much more radical film in 2013, dealing with a lesbian relationship and homophobia in a more accessible and mainstream way than a lot of things before. It paved the way for Cannes to accept later films like Carol, The Handmaiden, and Portrait of a Lady on a sizeable class element to Blue is the Warmest Colour. Adèle, with her working class origins and job as a teacher, finds herself lonely in a relationship with Emma, a privileged woman trying to make it as an artist. As Emma cruises through life, Adèle must always do the hard work. In long sequences of art students discussing philosophy, Adèle is an ordinary person reduced to serving drinks. The use of a food is a constant in Blue is the Warmest Colour, used to define class and set boundaries as to who belongs in which group. Emma thinks work cannot make Adèle happy, expecting or demanding Adèle to be artistic and not practical. This is a film of making mistakes when trying to find happiness, and Adèle having to realise that as time passes the people around her are unaccepting. Part of me feels like Blue is the Warmest Colour is a critique of these privileged, detached, pretentious artfucks. Adèle should not conform to their wants, but instead be herself. Adèle spends years heartbroken and stagnating, but the film's ending is perhaps a sign of her breaking away from that and moving on. I am of the opinion that the breakup scene between Emma and Adèle is reason enough to consider this a masterpiece. It is one of the best scenes of the past decade and devastates me every time I see it. It reduces Adèle to a screaming child, seeming so pathetic, and yet it is so heartbreaking. In fact, the whole final hour is masterful and the conclusion perfectly understated. When the end credits roll, I feel emotionally destroyed. Even now, when the film impacts me less, it still hits me hard. Emma and Adèle are always at different stages in their lives, and so the final scenes are inevitable. Weirdly I too am at a different stage in my life and so I increasingly feel more satisfied by the ending which keeps them least interesting moments of Blue is the Warmest Colour are the sex scenes, but they are the thing I see the most frequently discussed, which is a shame. They are rather distancing and cold, which is quite unlike everything else. There's no denying that the sexual imagery is near pornographic and essentially elevated male gaze art. Yet while this may be an inaccurate and problematic representation, I find those scenes work as a metaphor for the intensity of the central relationship. They also represent an eroticised ideal that cannot be realised or sustain itself, and indeed the characters outgrow it. Emma moves on even though she acknowledges that her new partner does not match Adèle sexually. I think Blue is the Warmest Colour ends up with a double-edged sword, as the sex scenes are the worst thing in the film, but without them the film wouldn't be what it is. The film would not function as an examination of sexuality or one about finding identity through sex. It's also a film without sentimentality for sex, presenting it as a matter of fact without shame nor judgment. Women are far more able to critique those scenes than me, but as the sex scenes make up such a small part of the runtime I find it sad that they overshadow so much else that is great in Blue is the Warmest is the Warmest Colour is one of the best films I know of when it comes to capturing the awkward transition from teenager to adult. As I have changed and grown up, the film works in different ways for me. It is a work about finding yourself, rejecting what others assume of you, and learning to ride through complicated feelings. It is real and rich in detail. There are problems in how this film was made, but in the context I exist in now Blue is the Warmest Colour still deeply moves my heart and I cannot reject its RankedMy Top Films of the 2010s Block or Report Darren liked these reviews

One of the most talked about entries at this year’s Cannes Film Festival had exploded as somewhat of a surprise after its initial screening — and for fine reason. Blue is the Warmest Color translated from La Vie D’Adele chapters 1 et 2 is a vivid portrait of the ever-changing seasons of love, from the first kiss to the final goodbye. Adapted from a French graphic novel Blue Angel and directed by Tunisian filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche, it’s a film which chronicles the experience of an adolescent girl as she navigates life from high school and blossoms into a young adult with her first job as a kindergarten teacher. In between, she experiences the trials and tribulations associated with growing up, including dating and discovering your own sexuality. Treated with delicate care and nuanced details, Blue is the Warmest Color is one of the most sensually provocative and intimate films of the year, a work that is sure to resonate with audiences for some time to come. The plot revolves around the life of Adele — played brilliantly by relative newcomer Adèle Exarchopoulos — whose routine life, at 15, consists of going to school and gossiping with friends about their crushes. At this young age, Adele doesn’t feel the need to question the norms of society girls date boys and that’s that. But after hooking up with one of the most popular guys in school, she realizes there is something missing in this intimate equation. Her desires are absent in the face of what her classmates expect to be the perfect guy for her, confusing her own identity as, late at night, she contemplates what could be wrong. Everything changes when a chance encounter leads Adele to meet a blue haired girl Emma — given life by Léa Seydoux in a hypnotically enigmatic performance — who will change her life trajectory forever. As their relationship blossoms, Adele’s sense of desire is unleashed in the passionate moments they share together. It’s difficult to discuss Blue without mentioning some scenes of intense and graphic lesbian sex that echo throughout. While it may be shocking for more conservative viewers, these moments of intense passion are essential for the film and a privilege for audiences — in their length, they allow viewers to explore levels of intimacy in an unprecedented manner. It helps define both characters’ connection to one another, and Kechiche is careful not to exploit these moments, instead letting the camera observe from a detached point of view. As Adele and Emma start to become a serious item, eventually moving in together, they face the problems and challenges that any couple face, straight or gay. In between conversations about philosophy and art Emma is an accomplished painter, their mutual desire for one another further develops their personality, giving a rich and complete portrait to each woman’s life. Coupled with intimate directorial garnishes, such characteristics give a sense of jumping into the life of another; it’s a wonder to behold. Themes of romance are treated with equal attention as those of breaking up, and the longing for someone you still have affection for is a palpable and relatable emotion to anyone who’s been hopelessly in love. Despite its three-hour runtime, the film never languishes in its pace, with a script that constantly keeps viewers drawn to characters as if they were brand-new. Reminiscent of the raw emotional power akin to the Dardenne brothers, there is also a layer of socioeconomic conflict paired alongside the emotional hurdles both Adele and Emma face. Kechiche’s direction is subdued yet penetrating, and it seems near-impossible not to be moved by both the joy and pain in Adele’s experience. Affecting and powerful in its portrayal of love, Blue is the Warmest Color is an epic ode to the enduring affection which overwhelms when we find that special someone. Blue is the Warmest Color was awarded the Palme d’Or, and will be released later this year by Sundance Selects.

22/05/2013 - Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux smash the barriers of social romanticism in the exceptional feminine "love story" by Abdellatif KechicheAdèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux in Blue Is the Warmest Colour"Touching the very essence of the human being" is the challenge of "cinéma vérité", or cinema revealing the candid truth, always confronted by Abdellatif Kechiche in a career already rich in rewards after only four feature films. But with Blue is the Warmest Color [+see also trailerinterview Abdellatif Kechichefilm profile], in competition at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, the filmmaker clearly soars to an even higher altitude by getting as close as possible to the hearts and skins of two young women from very different social backgrounds. Weaving a hyper-sexed romantic work of extraordinary breadth without ever departing from his stylistic line giving priority to life and the intensity of the sequences, nor renouncing profound reflection and social analysis, the director offers the almost unknown Adèle Exarchopoulos and rising star Léa Seydoux two enormous roles which they assume with incredible audacity. But beyond these performances nourished by the embraces, laughter and tears of youth, the film asserts itself as an ode to the simplest form of freedom and the most difficult to achieve, that of assuming who we are, without having to justify it. "What's my gender?" For the adolescent, questions about identity are ultra-relevent and Adèle Adèle Exarchopoulos, a school-girl from a working-class family in the suburbs of Lille, is of an age when the appetite for love and sexuality awakens. With a fondness for literature in an environment in which culture is virtually non-existent in conversations among girl-friends and at family dinners lulled by TV, she sooon feels uncomfortable in an adventure with a boy. For her life has changed since she happened to come across a girl with blue hair who unexpectedly invites herself into her erotic dreams. Somewhat lost in her desires and in a more or less unconscious search for this apparition, she is soon to find her and overcomes the aggressiveness of some of the school-girls "You'll never lick my pussy, you dirty dyke" before launching herself into the unknown territory of feminine homosexuality. Emma Léa Seydoux, the girl with blue hair, in her fourth year at the Fine Arts Academy, falls for Adèle's charm, gently keeping her at a distance at first "I'm one of those grown-ups who hang around in gay bars. I think we're rather different" before yielding to the alchemy of torrid bodies. Then begins the life of a couple that will gradually be fractured over the years by their vocations Adèle a teacher, Emma a designer and the gap that separates them in terms of ambitions, original backgrounds, education and their ways of envisaging happiness… While remaining true to the fundamental corpus the discovery of passion between women of the comic strip Le bleu est une couleur chaude on which he based his film, Abdellatif Kechiche evacuates almost all the aspects of lesbian militantism and the tragic dimension from his adaptation, in order to concentrate more fully on the sociological theme so dear to him the social gap and "melting pot" territories body to body, the pleasures of shared eating, demonstrations, parties and dancing, small classes in school etc.. His directing, which has become expert in the art of close-ups and movement delves deeply into the characters and examines the details of their feelings in long captivating sequences. The mastery and powerfulness of the sex scenes in particular go well beyond their pornographic dimension, simply offering portrayals of palpitating nature in its simplest expression. A transmutation also achieved by the transmission of numerous references in ideally rendered scenes of daily life, including The Life of Marianne by Marivaux the tale of a woman advancing towards and against everything, Antigone the "little" heroine one day deciding to say no and Sartre's Existentialism and Humanism. A whole which makes Blue is the Warmest Color a very great film, achieving spontaneous fusion between body and soul. Translated from French

review film blue is the warmest color