Blue Is the Warmest Color

Abdellatif Kechiche follows Adèle from school into adulthood after she meets blue haired Emma; the French title carries her name: La Vie d’Adèle. It is built almost entirely out of close ups: faces are studied for hours while the layout of any room stays vague. The class gap arrives through two family meals: pasta eaten open mouthed at Adèle’s table, oysters as a cultural marker at Emma’s. In Julie Maroh’s graphic novel the lead is Clémentine; Kechiche renamed her after his actress. The novel has the family find out; in the film Adèle’s parents take Emma for a philosophy tutor. A shoot planned for two and a half months ran five. At Cannes the jury chaired by Steven Spielberg gave the Palme d’Or to Kechiche and both actresses together; he dedicated it to the young people of France who taught him about freedom. Maroh wrote on her blog that she was never consulted about the sex scenes, called the result a brutal and surgical display, and found sanctifying women that way dangerous. Seydoux and Exarchopoulos called the shoot horrible; Kechiche told Télérama it should no longer be released. A good fit if you accept three hours on faces and dinner tables rather than plot. Not for anyone who cannot watch the sex scenes without recalling how they were made.