Director - Abdellatif Kechiche
Writers - Abdellatif Kechiche (adaptation), Julie Maroh (orginal book - "le bleu est une couleur chaude")
Starring - Adele Exarchopoulos, Lea Seydoux
Hello all, it's been far too long since I've done a written review so I thought I would go back to my roots this week.
For Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos) Blue is the warmest colour and proves to be the key to truly finding herself. As soon as she catches sight of blue haired Emma (Lea Seydoux) Adele’s world changes forever. Almost immediately she changes from a shy girl who can only really express herself in her journal, to one who’s fallen so head over heels in love that she could hardly care what her tedious group of friends think of her walking off with the ‘dyke with blue hair’.
With a running time of three hours, Blue is half an hour too long to keep you fully entranced the whole way through, no matter how compelling the acting is - and boy is it. That being said as an audience we benefit from the superb acting by seeing all the small nuances that makes up each character, particularly Adele. The constant messing of her hair, pulling up of her jeans and sleeping with her mouth posed ever so gently open, only add to the vulnerability and childlike quality that Exarchopoulos plays Adele with.
Director Abdellatif Kechiche is extremely clever in his use of the colour blue throughout. Often the title of a film is a bit of a throwaway but not here. It is Emma’s bold blue hair and attitude that first catches Adele’s eye in the middle of a street and imprints her image in her mind forever. For Adele, it is the blue she really falls in love with, her bed at home is covered by a blue sheet representing the only thing she really enjoys about being at home, which is being in bed with Emma. Once Emma stops dying her hair and reverts to her natural blond, the relationship begins to take a turn for the worse, with arguments and jealousy coming from all sides including one of Adele’s male work colleagues. This culminates in Adele wearing a brilliant blue dress when returning to see Emma in the final scene of the film. It is a desperate plea to try and remind Emma of the colour and joy their relationship used to have
One of the real qualities of this film is how real it’s depiction of a sexual relationship is, and as a result, is such a no holds barred piece of cinema. There is one sex scene though that I feel pushes the boundaries so far that it becomes ineffective. I began to question the length and point of said scene. At first the graphic nature of the scene is incredibly effective in conveying the passion and desire between Emma and Adele but then I began to feel rather uncomfortable, almost like a voyeur. The scene ponders on the same idea too long to make you remember why it is there in the first place and left me slightly reeling for a while despite the film continuing to move on.
This is so much more than just a film about sex though. The quality of the filmmaking is captivating enough to dissolve most of my criticism of said scene. ‘Blue’ maps out all the emotion, ecstasy and pain that falling in love brings, it is a very special film and deserve’s all the critical acclaim its actors and makers have received, becoming the first film to be honoured with the Palme d’Or for both director and lead actresses. If you haven't seen it you must watch and have your eyes well and truly opened.
As always please share with your nearest and dearest. Am going to try and get another review out this week so stay tuned to the Facebook page or Twitter for a link...
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