Blue Is The Warmest Colour - A truly astounding tour-de-force of cinema

This year’s Palme d’Or winner arrived in London with director Abdellatif Kechiche and young star Adèle Exarchopolous in tow having attracted numerous headlines since its festival bow. Despite wowing the Cannes jury, the film’s graphic sex scenes have split critics and audiences alike, while grumblings surfaced in interviews from both lead actresses about the difficulty of working with Kechiche, to such an extent that they’d never work with him again. Proclaiming that he wanted to cancel the release, Kechiche has evidently been perturbed by this wave of negative press, but the final result is a truly astounding tour-de-force of cinema which deserves as wide an audience as possible.

Loosely based on the 2010 French graphic novel by Julie Maroh, the film covers the period of Adèle’s (Adèle Exarchopoulos) life from her final years at high school into her twenties when she’s pursuing a career as a teacher. After a brief, failed romance with Thomas (Jérémie Laheurte), her life changes when she walks past blue-haired art student Emma (Léa Seydoux), whom she cannot stop thinking about. After visiting a gay bar with a friend, Adèle meets her properly for the first time, and they begin an intense, passionate affair. Clocking in at just under three hours, the film chronicles the ups and downs of their romance, whilst also serving as an in-depth character study, truly immersing the viewer into both women’s lives.

Blue… isn’t so much a lesbian love story as that of a girl assuming her own identity as she grows up, seeking happiness with someone with whom she has a genuine connection. The scenes between Emma and Adèle have an astonishing degree of authenticity to them that at times it almost feels like watching a documentary, especially in the second part of the film’s French title (Chapitre 2) where their shared pain and heartbreak resonates powerfully with the viewer. The first sharing of the Palme d’Or between director and lead actresses is testament to the magnitude of both performances, but as the younger lead, Exarchopolous’ turn as a nineteen year old is simply extraordinary, demonstrating remarkable maturity in showing what it’s like to fall in love and maintain a relationship. Hollywood stardom surely awaits her.

The film’s main talking point, its now infamous sex scenes, must be considered as some of the most daring in recent cinematic memory. While they serve to illustrate the explosive passion and instant sexual connection between the two girls, the length of the chief one alone risks distracting audiences. However, neither Exarchopolous nor Seydoux are objectified in these scenes, and the sex is both raw yet tender, showing the sexual electricity between them.

The colour of the film’s title is a recurring theme through the film, intelligently used throughout the story’s arc to illustrate the ups and downs of Adèle and Emma’s relationship. That by the end of the film Emma’s hair colour has returned to her regular blonde roots is representative of her negative view of the relationship, while a scene of Adèle in the sea bathed in sunlight makes it seem as if her hair is the same colour as her lover’s. It’s a lasting image which perfectly illustrates her adoration for Emma at that point in the film. Blue… also has hints of social satire, with Adèle’s conservative parents deliberately kept in the dark about the girls’ relationship, while Emma’s knowingly and willingly accept her as a guest at their house for dinner. The negative response of Adèle’s friends to her homosexuality at the beginning of the film, which at this point she vehemently denies, is one of the film’s first explosive scenes, resulting in a schoolyard fight and the subsequent, gradual disappearance of her friends from the rest of the picture.

Blue… is the true antithesis of generic Hollywood film formula, yet is totally engaging for the entirety of its running time. The sincerity of both actresses’ portrayal of their characters takes the audience with them on every step of their turbulent, emotional journey, painting a picture of love’s most blissful and excruciating moments. Exarchopolous will surely be joint favourite, if not front runner alongside Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) for the best actress Oscar.