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| Poster courtesy of BLT Communications, LLC. |
Blue Is The Warmest Color is a romantic coming of age tale that focuses on a young high school girl, Adele, who slowly comes to terms with her sexuality through the help of a confident, older lesbian Emma. As Adele becomes more confident in her sexuality, she begins lacking confidence in her relationship, leading to jealousy and suspicion, eventually to a heart-wrenching climax and conclusion.
With no hesitation, I say that this film is my favorite from 2013. I tend to prefer movies that focus more on character development in comparison to films that seem overly saturated with plot. As such, Blue Is the Warmest Color is certainly a character study, with characters that I so deeply related to that I went to bed crying after viewing the film. I am so intensely passionate about this film that I even have a poster hanging in my room, expectant of the blu-ray to arrive in the mail any day, and own the English language version of the graphic novel. I don't want to give away any spoilers, although I wouldn't say there are many spoilers to give. As I said before, this film is not reliant on plot so much as it is reliant on characters. That being said, nothing truly happens in the movie so much as characters happen.And that is why I was drawn to this film; to me, the important facets of life are people and their lives.
The film premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, unanimously clinching the prestigious and sought after Palme D'or award for Best Film. It was during it's premiere at the festival that multiple controversies surrounding the production came to surface. Director Kechiche was accused of harboring a harsh working environment, tampering with overtime pay, and avoidance of labor law requirements, which caused multiple crew members to quit while on set. In September of 2013, only 4 months after the premiere of the film, lead actresses Seydoux and Exarchopoulos went public with what they called a "horrible" experience on set with Kechiche. Kechiche's response to the negativity about production was that the film shouldn't be released at all, saying "I think this film should not go out; it was too sullied." The resistance Kechiche showed to releasing the film affected its distribution as a whole, resulting in the films inability to qualify for the 2014 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
The controversies aside, Blue Is The Warmest Color is a masterpiece of a film. A recent re-watch only cemented my opinion that this movie will stand as an example for years to come. The naturalism of the acting, which was achieved by Kechiche through countless retaking of shots, marks an important departure from formalism, which is a new trend in the recent years. Kechiche, regardless of the negative press he has received, inspired me and invoked my passion for film once again. His techniques, such as only allowing the actors to read the script only once, and then demanding improvisation for each scene, creates an environment of real life where the actors are given free creative reign, allowing them to emerse themselves entirely in the experience of the film. And that's what it is all about, isn't it? Naturalism, realism, being true to the character, but evoking past experiences as source material.
I loved Blue Is The Warmest Color. I recommend this film to anyone and everyone. A++.
Sources:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/blue-is-warmest-color-shouldnt-635532?
I appreciate the true understanding for this film's snub at the Oscars. Most people just pointed and said "The Academy is homophobic" (which they can be sometimes, but there are other factors).
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Peter. While there are some problems within the Academy, there are often other, outside factors that lend to a film not getting nominated.
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