Image via Wild Bunch
Blue Is the Warmest Colour, or La Vie d’Adèle—Chapitres 1 & 2, is a 2013 French romantic drama film written, produced, and directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year and became the first film to be awarded the prize to both the director and the lead actresses.
The film is about a teenager, Adèle, whose dream is to become a teacher. She meets Emma, a blue-haired art student at a nearby college, and they become romantically involved. Many things occur during and after the period they become romantically involved and/or in love. Throughout the film, Adèle grows, seeks herself, loses herself, and finds herself.
The film was criticized about a few things, such as the sex scenes and the working conditions. For example, many crew members said the production occurred in a “heavy” atmosphere with behavior close to “moral harassment”, which led to some members and workers to quit. Technicians accused director Abdellatif Kechiche of harassment, unpaid overtime and violations of labor laws. Because of such harassment, the two main actresses, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos said they would never work with him again. So, there goes out the possibility of having a sequel, which is a shame because I really wanted to know more; the ending was not satisfying at all.
But the film overall has received really good ratings, with an average score of 8.1 out of 10 from Rotten Tomatoes. Also, the film was criticized because of the really long and graphic sex scene(s), although fake genitalia were used.
I personally, went to watch this film and thought it was a really great film. Yes, the sex scene was really long and graphic but aside from that and the ending, the movie overall was really good and entertaining, which was good because it is about three hours long. The two main actresses do a very good job and are very beautiful. I really recommend this film to anyone, queer or not. You don’t have to be queer to appreciate a “lesbian love story”.