Film Review and Analysis
Blue is The Warmest color is a French film from twenty-thirteen focusing on Adèle, a young lady who we later learn questions her sexuality. It was directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, who has directed many films and won many awards including Ale Kino! – International Young Audience Film Festival and Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema to name a few. The screen play was written by Abdellatif Kechiche and his wife Ghalya Lacroix. The genres of Blue is the Warmest Color are romance, drama, and a melodrama. The film’s actual title in French is “La Vie d’Alene”
We follow her throughout her life, we learn of her struggles with her sexuality. We start when Adele is in high school when she either believes that she is into guys or tries to be into guys. We continue to go through Adèle’s life as the film progresses through the plot. As Adèle is going to meet her date she sees a girl with blue hair and she fell for her instantly. She goes out with a guy that likes her and spends the afternoon with him. She really enjoys his company but does not like him in a romantic way. Adele was with one of her when she’s talked about another girl’s but. Then her friend leans in out of the blue for a kiss. This is a major turning point for Adèle, because this first kiss helps her to understand who she is. Adèle then goes looking for the girl with blue hair. She goes to a couple of clubs before she finds her, and they make eye contact.
Emma brings Adèle to meet her parents who are both supportive of Emma and know about their relationship. After some time has passed Adèle brings Emma to her home to meet her parents where we find out that she is not out and her parents believe that Emma is helping Adèle with her philosophy class. We see Adèle exhibit and or exhibit many of these traits or qualities throughout the film. We fast forward to when Adèle and Emma are living together booth pursuing their own professions as an artist and a teacher. Adèle starts seeing a male coworker and Emma finds out and goes off on Adèle and kicks her out. They meet later on (not clear on how long) for drinks when Emma explains that she is in love. Adèle tries to get back together by seducing Emma but is unsuccessful. They meet at Emma’s art exhibit where Adèle finds Samir again. They both leave the exhibit and the movie ends.
Mise-en-scène
Editing in Blue Is the Warmest Color is straight forward, there are not a lot of special edits such as wipes, montages, sequence shots or jump cuts. The edits that are most commonly used throughout the movie cuts, establishing shots, eyeline match shots and continuity editing. The set design is simple throughout the film. There is not a lot that would take away from the main action of the film. Throughout the film one key element is very noticeable. The use of blue is in probably almost every shot of this movie. We see this in the classroom with blue walls to the blue smoke at the Pride Parade. Often different shades of blue are the shades and tones of blue used in Emma’s painting that portray Adèle as well as other naked women. We see this at her art exhibit toward the end of the movie.
The director of cinematography was Sofian El Fani. The cinematography intermingles a host of different shots throughout Blue Is the Warmest Color. A camera shot that is used often are eyeline match shots. These shots are a crucial part of the film as they usually center around Adèle. They help to create connections for the viewer. Another shot that is commonly used throughout is the close-up shots. These shots are used show the viewer something specific, for example they do close shots on Adèle’s face to show her emotions and her emotional state.
Themes
There are many themes throughout the film. The first theme is sexual identity. This is the most evident theme since the main character, Adèle questions her sexual identity is the basis for the better part of the movie. The next them featured in the film is social class. We see this mainly during the two during dinner scenes. In these scenes we see the difference between a conservative working-class family and a open-minded middle class family. The subjects of both dinners vary greatly. The subject matter of the open minded middle class had more substance and existential matter that ranged from art, career, life and passion. While on the other hand the conversation was based on more banal subjects.
Color Theory
The color blue is a staple throughout the film as mentioned earlier. Blue has many meanings and the actual meaning from the writers may not be known but there could be many possibilities. In the LGBTQ community the blue strip on the rainbow flag which represents, pessimism or serenity. Blue is also predominately displayed transgender flag, pansexual flag and the bisexual flag. The bisexual flag could bring up a deeper meaning since Adèle seemed to have a relationship with a male partner. Blue could also reference typical emotional states. Blue represents a wide range of emotions it deals with faith, spirituality, contentment, loyalty, fulfillment, peace, tranquility, calm, stability, harmony, unity, trust, truth, confidence, conservatism, security, cleanliness, order and depression. The most common meaning however is depression and sadness. Adèle was
Awards and Accolades
This film has been nominated and nominated for many awards. It won a total of thirty-nine awards. It won Best Foreign Language Film from The Austin Film Critics Association in twenty-thirteen. It was nominated for ninety-six awards throughout many countries including the United States. It was shown at many film festivals around the world.
Reception
The reception of Blue is the Warmest Color has varied largely. There is much debate in worldwide from lesbians. One was quoted saying "I thought it was hot at the beginning, and then it got ridiculous when they kept switching sex positions every ten seconds," observes one viewer. "It started to feel like an infomercial for a kitchen product, where they try and showcase all the things it can do. 'It can chop, it can slice, it can dice, it can puree, it can eat out your asshole.” (Patches) The film faced major controversy over the sex scenes for many reasons. The director and writer are both straight. Both Adèle Exarchopoulos (Adèle) and Léa Seydoux (Emma) are straight actresses. Some objections were raised by the Catholic Church in France. They sued to raise the minimum age up to see the film because “of a nature that could impact the sensitivity of a young public.” (Goodfellow)
LGBTQ Rights
This film has a heavy emphasis on being queer in France with this being an integral role in the film, what is it really like to be queer in France? According to Joël Deumier “Today, in France, we still cannot live and love freely just as we are,”(Marquise) The SOS Homophobie’s May 2017 issue the organization received more than fifteen-hundred reports of hateful acts against the LGBTQ community. Bullying of individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer have a higher rate of bullying according to The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law reports that “85% of LGBT students have experienced verbal harassment,
58% of LGBT youth have felt unsafe at school due to their sexual orientation; 43% have felt unsafe because of their gender identity, 27% of LGBT students have been physically harassed at school because of their sexual orientation; 13% have been physically harassed because of their gender identity.” (Dowd) Marriage equality was passed on May thirteenth twenty-thirteen in France and they were the thirteenth country worldwide to legalize gay marriage, beating the United States by two years.
Conclusion
With mixed reception from many communities