Blue Is the Warmest Color

A good romance in American cinema is surprisingly difficult to find because most films of a romantic nature are either romantic comedies or romantic melodramas. They're a dime a dozen. But every once in a great while, you get a film that not only casts off the rom-com or melodrama usually associated with a romance story, but actually draws you in to the relationship in such a mesmerizing way with smart and absorbing storytelling and unbelievably brilliant performances is one of the rarest things imaginable. Director Abdellatif Kechiche's BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR is that film. Based on the wonderful award-winning graphic novel by Julie Maroh, BLUE is the story of Adele (Adele Excharopoulos), who begins the film as a naturally beautiful 15-year-old high school student who is just trying to do her best to stay uneaten in the feeding frenzy of adolescence. She keeps with her friends; she dates a cute boy; she pleases her working-class parents; she does well in school. But all that changes one day when she walks across a street, and sees Emma (Lea Seydoux), a haunting and beautiful older college student with dyed blue hair. They share a gaze, and in that instant, Adele is transfixed. She can barely move. She has really felt that thing we all look for: love at first sight. After losing her virginity with her boyfriend as an attempt to deny her "abnormal" feellings, she clearly doesn't feel the love and desire for him that she wants to, and breaks it off with him. Through a sequence of events, she has a chance meeting with Emma at a gay bar, and they become friends. The friendship clearly blossoms into something more, and their passions reach a fever pitch as they make love for the first time. They begin a relationship that is hidden from Adele's family and friends, but is open and accepted by Emma's. The relationship spans several years from Adele's student days and to her becoming a teacher of kindergarteners, and Emma changes from starving artist to toast of the town. But their relationship has problems. Despite the length of time they've spent together, they seem to be losing one another. Does love overcome, or is the passion of youth weighed down by the practicality of adulthood? When this film was presented with the Palme D'or, the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, it wasn't just presented to director Kechiche, but also to leads Excharopoulos (this is her first major film role) and Seydoux (who some filmgoers might recognize from American films like MIDNIGHT IN PARIS or MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL) and the reasoning behind that is that they were all equal parts of what makes this film so remarkable. Kechiche directs the film using a lot of close-ups, allowing the audience very much in the lives and minds of the characters that inhabit the film. He also spares the audience any obvious artistic flourishes. There is barely any soundtrack to the film that isn't ambient sound from the settings within the film, so there are no music cues that instruct the audience how to feel. But Kechiche's skill behind the camera pales in comparison to what is possibly one of the most revelatory screen debuts I've ever seen, and that is from Excharopoulos, who so bares herself in both body and soul that it may be one of the singularly most immersive performances I've seen since Charlize Theron's amazing turn in MONSTER. Seydoux is as close to Excharopoulos's level as possible, which is an obvious challenge, but she plays the wiser, edgier and more experienced Emma close to perfection opposite Adele's wide-eyed, voracious youth, hungry for knowledge, experience and love. Both regretfully and triumphantly, the film's most talked-about sequence is a nearly 10-minute love scene between Adele and Emma which, while being graphic (but not unsimulated), is exciting, erotic, tender, a little clumsy, and beautiful. It gives the film its NC-17 rating, and I regret that it's the scene that most articles and reviews tend to bring up, but I also think it's a triumph because no one has talked this way about an NC-17 film since the film that effectively killed the rating being taken seriously, and that is Paul Verhoeven's SHOWGIRLS. Another thing that is brought up in regards to this film is the seemingly endless war of words between Kechiche and his two leads, but more than anything, that's just fodder for the gossip columns and not worth the time to remark on it any further. For fans of the graphic novel, there are certainly differences that will surprise and possibly disappoint them. A major plot point is dropped from this film in favor of something that seems more realistic, and that actually works in the film's favor, however, if how the film plays out is how it played out in the graphic novel, it would not have worked. It's best to think of them as two separate but equally amazing pieces of art that share a great deal, but one story works better in the graphic novel, and one works better in the film. To me, this is the most romantic film since Ang Lee's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, and let me qualify that statement. Yes, they are both romance epics about same-sex love, but for whatever reason, I haven't seen another film between the masterpiece of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN in 2005 and this film in 2013 that reflects what it truly feels to be in love, and is also so achingly beautiful and sad and heartfelt and real as we watch the relationship progress, flourish and disintegrate through time. BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR is certainly one of the very best films of the year and possibly of the decade, and has what is certainly to be the two best female performances in recent years. I can only hope that Exarchopolous and Seydoux are remembered and rightfully recognized during Oscar season.

Excellent

Me llegó 24 hrs después de haberla pedido en buen estado.

Increíble película, la quería en físico y Criterion Collection se caracteriza por la increíble calidad de sus remasterizaciones.

The film devours you into the main actress. Her acting, the interesting methodically developed transformation of her sexual identity, her ignition of passion towards the feminine of her choice, the love affair and the eventualities of how the love affair plays out. Reality created true to life nuanced passionate love story. True lived in character became profoundly interesting as the youthful passion became inflamed. Creation of passion was well done by the actresses and director capturing the subtleties and slowness of the developing love, the pause during the eye contract. Her awakening into a sexuality orientation and leap into her identity took dramatic alteration from who she thought she was and it seemed at the end of the movie her transformation is still somewhat being discovered. Sequels can fully explore her sexual identity whether lesbian or perhaps someone who loves the person despite their sex. Sexuality was utilized to explain and showcase the passions she felt and contrast them to her other love affairs especially the one with the male. Not everything in film needs to be imagined sometimes stark portrayals can truly take the audience into whats going on. We get to be completely immersed into the passions seeing some of the sexuality between the characters. We can therefore not only understand but feel more the character's spiritual love, her painful anguish, her desirous passions since we were allowed to voyeuristically step into the bedroom and take a peak. The relationship was unpredictable and you did not know what would happen next. The movie could have exploited this sexuality giving more of a thrill yet it remained controlled by holding back and focusing on the relationship and the psychoanalysis of love. This created more interesting characters. A world that delights in the delectable sensuality of life. Not only regarding sex but food takes on a symbol of pleasure. You see side characters not so much indulging as taking real genuine sensual satisfying pleasure in eating. The exquisite, philosophical, thought provoking, literary referenced, writing coupled with unbelievably believable acting portrayals made this possibly the best made film this year. Philosophical conversations not related to the thrust of the story but its themes such as the comparison of male vs female pleasure, gave the film another level of substance. It was very long at 3 hours and you were left with wanting to literally follow the main protagonist and find out what would happen next in her life. A sequel was suggested at end credits and it would be wonderful to see more well made explorations of these subject matters following this amazing actress. Further learning and discovering her primordial essence with her and witnessing how she will indulge in it. This Blu-Ray Is a Must Have!.