Abdellatif Kechiche's bold, passionate and controversial love story about the tempestuous relationship between a sensitive high-schooler (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and an assertive art student (Léa Seydoux) won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Blue Is the Warmest Colour, winner of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, has garnered considerable attention for its fearless sex scenes involving two women, but this notoriety should not distract from the audacity with which Abdellatif Kechiche confronts a passionate love affair between a couple of youngsters. Bypassing the sex and looking deeper into the dynamics of this relationship, one can only admire the risks and choices that the director takes along the way. For this is above all a film that forces its audience to look, and Kechiche's camera does not allow us to look away. Our gaze is held, and often, held much longer than we wish or expect, and it is in this act of looking that the film reveals as much about ourselves, and our reactions, as it does about its two protagonists.
Adèle is a sensitive fifteen-year-old student when we first meet her. She is, essentially, an ordinary kid, until she realizes that her sexual desires turn more towards her own gender than the boys who ask her out. After meeting a blue-haired stranger, the confident and assertive Emma, Adèle soon finds herself tentatively visiting gay bars, and, shortly thereafter, wrapped in the arms and legs of her new lover, enjoying the delights of first love.
It is here that her true journey begins — a journey that Kechiche confronts with honesty and openness. He positions this affair in the social world of friends, school, family, and work; this is not a relationship conducted away from the prying eyes of society. As Adèle and Emma move beyond their high-school years and move in together, discover the complications of a more mature relationship. Kechiche, and his wonderful actors Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, take us down special roads in this exquisite piece of filmmaking.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiffbelllightbox/2013/2330020763
