document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); FOR ALL THAT LOVE THIS MOVIE AS MUCH AS THE ACTRESSES. The film spends time filming conflicts, emotions, and feelings in great, gory detail. The film follows Adle (Exarchopoulos), a French teenager who discovers desire and freedom as an aspiring painter, Emma (Seydoux), enters her life. I don't mind that it was hard. Samir also sees this, and tries to comfort her. As she is walking away on that street with those evocative gently popping sounds floating along with her, like the sound that would be made if every time a soap bubble popped it made a gentle ringing tingle, I can imagine the beginning of another chapter for Adele, another journey, perhaps this one will be less fierce, less passionate, but perhaps she will happier, and content at the end of this one. They later have sex and begin a passionate relationship. Adle congratulates Emma on her success and, after a brief conversation with Samir, leaves. La Seydoux's Emma is an irresistible monster -- a painter who lives and breathes her work, who falls passionately in love with her subjects but who can't sustain interest in anything she can't make use of in her art. It ended up pissing it down with rainEric Cantona scored twice and Chelsea lost 4-0. Although Blue is the Warmest Color was a great triumph at Cannes two years ago when you and La Seydoux shared the Palme d'Or, it became almost immediately controversial. I felt a rejection of me; I live like a curse''. Emma discovers the cheating and furiously breaks up with Adle. Batrice says she does not want to proceed further and tells Adle to forget the kiss. Were working to restore it. [18] She passes an older woman with short blue hair in the streets one day and is instantly attracted. The swirl of hostility, accusations and counter-accusations, retribution and jeering from the wings that has enveloped Blue is the Warmest Colour, the French erotic epic that was the toast of last year's Cannes Film Festival, makes most of Hollywood's catfights look pale by comparison. I was reminded of times I deliberately said things I knew would cut people, knowing how shit it would make them feel, but doing it anyway. In the movie it shows the progression of two characters who are go through pursuit of love, sex, and career ambition. He also dodges an opportunity to clear the air on the correct interpretation because, again, he doesnt care. Was Adele more of an professional assistant to Emma at the end, than a lover? 1, 2 and 3. Under license from Universal Music Vision. Toward the film's end, when Adle desperately tries to seduce Emma in an empty bar, begging in vain to rekindle their sexual and emotional connection, it becomes ever clear that this film really isn't about sexual orientation. And all of this goes against the point of an ambiguous ending: If you make an ending ambiguous, make it ambiguous for a good reason! So much noise has surrounded the release of Abdellatif Kechiche's controversial Palme D'Or-winning film that several clarifying points may help potential viewers navigate the sound and fury. This movie was considered controversial due to its erotic scenes and taboo storyline. In the years that follow, the two women move in together. Blue Is the Warmest Colour ( French: La Vie d'Adle - Chapitres 1 & 2; French pronunciation: [la vi dadl apit ne d]) is a 2013 romance film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Abdellatif Kechiche and starring La Seydoux and Adle Exarchopoulos. That really, really sucked. Emma acknowledges Adle but is focused on Lise and the other guests. Significant plot points and character motivations that should have been explored (you seriously expect us to believe CLASS DIFFERENCES were what drove them apart, Kechiche? He makes you care about these characters and then drops them. Living in the massive cesspool of ambition, greed, and "luxury apartments" that is London, everyone is obsessed with their jobs, their friends, and their incredibly important lives. HI!! As she grows indifferent to her male classmates after a fumbled sexual experience, Adle finds herself filled with profound and unprecedented feelings--the unexpected result of a chance encounter with a mysterious blue-haired woman. "[28] In the film, Adle's parents seem oblivious to her love affair with Emma and politely greet her under the impression that she is Adle's philosophy tutor. Sure, you get used to it after a while its a movie after all and it does look poetic, but it still doesnt make sense with the rest of the film to me. It also occurred to me how often I've wondered whether long-term relationships are really worth the hassle, given that the bad times and break-ups are such an ordeal. [102][103][104] Kechiche dedicated the award to "the youth of France" and the Tunisian Revolution, where "they have the aspiration to be free, to express themselves and love in full freedom". She sleeps with Thomas, a boy from school, but is ultimately dissatisfied and ends their relationship. ''Sometimes she was saying, 'Oh, this is very difficult', and I was saying, 'Think about the film. In fact I think it is Adeles love for life that makes her so vulnerable and so sensitive. He wrote: "Kechiche's film is three hours long, and the only problem with that running time is that I could have happily watched it for another seven. We SHOULD know what happens to Emma. Perhaps one of the most significant differences between the families is that Emma's is aware of their lesbian relationship, while Adle's conservative parents are led to believe the women are just friends. The two part with apologies and tears. nicely written and I appreciate this blog cause you can say the same about Emma that you wished for Adele. He met teachers "who felt very strongly about reading, painting, writing" and was inspired to develop a script that charts the personal life and career of a female French teacher. Adele mentions that he gets attached to his character and doesnt like to let them go because in the book that its based on, the character Clementine (Adele) dies from a heart condition (symbolizing a broken heart) stemming from her depression from her breakup with Emma. I think a lot of his exposition is related to the literary reveals he makes throughout the movie, (especially the poetry reference in the last teaching scene) I think they form a plot that is more feeling than exposition. and so many more (it would be cool to see how much the full movie tracked with the book). Australia's east coast is set to sweat with the arrival of a heatwave that forecasters warn will be more intense than anything experienced over summer. Blue is the Warmest Colour is quite extraordinary. Yet, soon after she begins her relationship with Emma, we see Adle marching again, hip-to-hip with her new lover, at a gay pride parade. This fan appears very enamored of Emma. 6.It understands the human condition. She tells Adle that she no longer loves her, but that their relationship was special and she will always have "infinite tenderness" for her. Then I remembered that this was a film, too. I wrote that I was pretty frustrated, but I thought it was realistic, and that is in the sense that its reality. It was also screened in the Special Presentation section of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on 5 September 2013. It served as an intensifier for the tragedy. [26], Director and screenwriter Abdellatif Kechiche developed the premise for Blue Is the Warmest Colour while directing his second feature film, Games of Love and Chance (2003). Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. Shes a conduit for sympathy from the audience. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Why should the ending of the film, or certain key plot points throughout, be an exception to this rule? That happens with Pedro Almodovars movies, The Skin I Live In or Volver. There is no question that making Blue is the Warmest Colour was intense, immersive and extremely demanding, especially for Exarchopoulos, who was only 18 and dropped out of school to make the film. All smiles: Lea Seydoux (left), director Abdellatif Kechiche and Adele Exarchopoulos in Cannes. Jury President Spielberg explained: The film is a great love story that made all of us feel privileged to be a fly on the wall, to see this story of deep love and deep heartbreak evolve from the beginning. ''Fine! At the same time, Julie Maroh, the author of the graphic novel on which the film was based, publicly criticised the film's ground-breaking sex scenes, describing them as ''ridiculous'' and questioning whether there had been any real, live lesbians on Kechiche's set. It's healthy. Many people focused purely on the sex , labeling the film a gratuitous lesbian romp. Even in the graphic novel one of Adeles friends help them talk things out. Jul Maroh, Ivanka Hahnenberger (Translator) Blue is the Warmest Color is a graphic novel about growing up, falling in love, and coming out. ''You can see that we were really suffering. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Two days later, he told a press conference in Los Angeles that it was obscene for these young women to claim they had suffered. "[29], In late 2011, a casting call was held in Paris to find the ideal actress for the role of Adle. Yesterday, I was lucky to see two movies that were in contention for Palme d'Or in a local festival as special screenings. . Thank you Hong for your efforts in making this available to us! ), ya, OK and maybe a wee bit of Rum as well,. Is blue, indeed, the warmest colour? All that means that we could love, lost, and love again.. Someone comes up to Emma and says "what a pick up artist!". [12][13] It received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. While sitting in the movie theater for 3 hrs, I was wondering, WHEN WILL THIS END?? I remember the first time I watched it, (on Netflix) cuddled up with my partner sharing a healthy snack of buttered popcorn and an xtra large hot fudge sundae (with peanuts!! Actually, not sure where you got that I like the ending. As a cynic, I never thought I'd find myself writing this, but the main lesson I took from Blue Is the Warmest Color is to seize the day and be unafraid of intimacy. It was later, a day before the New Year, that Kechiche decided to offer Exarchopoulos the leading role in the film; as he said in an interview, "I chose Adle the minute I saw her. The ending isnt great if you are looking for a definite ending for Adele. I thought of my parents, their terrible fights and eventual divorce, of my relationships and how it felt to hurt someone and be hurt by someone I loved. Director Abdellatif Kechiche spends three grueling hours painting an incredibly intimate picture of a relationship, from the fuzzy beginning, through the wobbling uncertainty in the middle, to the. Here, there isnt one. The truth is it was extremely hard but that's OK. Live For Today. [68] It had greater success in the U.S. home entertainment market, generating more than $3,500,000 in U.S. Blu-ray/DVD sales alone. Just by the way humans operate, some moment of happiness, some way of Adeles dealing dealing with her huge Emma-based problem (which the ending he gives only compounds!!! perhaps years if you happen to be in Adeles shoes, or worse, Emma and somewhere along the way, we are either Adele, Emma or a combination of both. He doesnt follow through with the thing hes set up. Name another contemporary movie that is solely interested in the world of a young woman -- and that spends nearly three hours exploring it. Hit her again'! The fact that Kechiche makes us so invested emotionally in these characters means that he should provide a payoff. The director did not put any constraints on the narrative and we were absolutely spellbound by the amazing performances of the two actresses, and especially the way the director observed his characters and just let the characters breathe. [107] The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 71st Golden Globe Awards and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. We do a runner as soon as emotion rears its head, because that's not why we're herewe're here for a good time. I am not strong like Emma, though I wish to be, or not. Whyd Kechiche reduce such a feeling of hope to the ambiguous sound of a hang player rather than actually show it after so much build-up? Blue Is the Warmest Color (French: Le bleu est une couleur chaude, originally announced as Blue Angel) is a French graphic novel by Jul Maroh, published by Glnat in March 2010. Halcyon Daze. But it's a blue-haired girl she meets on the street who really piques her interest. another journey.perhaps this one will be less fierce, less passionate, but, perhaps she will be happier.. I remembered cowardly trying to justify past actions while exes criedor, in some cases, threw things at me. We would spend hours talking about women and life; I also took painting and sculpting lessons, and read a lot about art and philosophy. French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche first wanted to explore the story of a school teacher due to his preoccupations with social class. Watching Blue is the Warmest Color is an awfully carnal affair. She meets Emma who is a free spirited girl whom Adle's friends reject due to her sexuality, and by association most begin to reject Adle. Sooner or later, shell have to be autonomous in some way, because otherwise, she wont survive in a realistic world. 4.It is as fascinated by the heart and the mind as the body. I want to pay them tribute. Not character development. Samir discusses America with Adle while the others discuss sex, and the two become friends. (LogOut/ [49], Reviewer Spencer Wolff noted Adle's political stance, which changes as her life experiences change and reflect her alternating views: "Framed by black and Arab faces, Adle marches in a protest to demand better funding for education. Unless there is a continuation of the story in La Vie d'Adle Part 2, we will never know if Adle will be granted a second chance at love -- and if that chance can ever be anything more than a shadow of her first. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Blue displays a keen awareness of the various relationships that make up our social structure: The mise-en-scne with Adle's schoolgirl friends provides a bristling backdrop of believable jealousy, intimacy and strife, while the push and pull of family expectations is touchingly represented in both the frank embrace of Emma's parents and the sad machinations Adle goes through to appease her own. Lesbian sexuality is one of the film's primary themes, as the narrative deals with Adle's exploration of her identity in this context. [38], In September 2013, Seydoux and Exarchopoulos also complained about Kechiche's behaviour during the shooting. (LogOut/ How far has Emma progressed through the course of the movie? Sometimes it seemed to her she was spending whole days crying. I think that is nuts, to me the fact that she can go from teenage-girl blank to totally ecstatic, or totally devastated within the same story is a marvel. For three hours. The hysterical reaction to the film from people who haven't even seen it suggests it's not the sex that people are scared of, or the fact its story concerns two lesbiansit's the fact that, like all great films, it delivers a truth that many would rather ignore. That an actress who grew up in Paris can be so resonant-expressive to a woman who grew up in Minnesota I find wonderous. Viewers who try to parse the various roles the male characters are meant to play in lead Adle's life will discover that questions of sexual identity are irrelevant here. [6], Production began in March 2012 and lasted five months. This post will be a little long, and a little in-depth, but Id really like to explain why. [32] Shooting took place in Lille, Roubaix, and Livin. As their stock of stories gathered momentum, however, Kechiche began to emerge as something of a monster. In front of others, Adle grows, seeks herself, loses herself, and ultimately finds herself through love and loss. This article originally appeared on VICE UK. He might as well have flipped everyone off. Exquisitely. So overwhelmed were the members of the Cannes jury that they decided to give the Palme D'Or not only to the director, but, in an unprecedented move, to the two actresses, Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos, as well. Someone comes up to Emma and says what a pick up artist! Adele watches this situation from a few feet away. I respect your opinion, Hong, and I thank you for tolerating mine so far, but I cannot say that this ending is good anymore. To me, she said: ''I don't know whether it has really changed me, but it's made me develop and grow. I understand. On one wall is a nude portrait of Adle that Emma painted during their time together. The idea that two people who love each other that much can put each other through such pain really got to me. Thats not how you make a film. 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