There's a third thing, one that isn't a talking point like the first two, probably because it's kind of petty and dumb on part to even bring it up: for all that Blue Is the Warmest Color is a handsome title, mysterious and poetic and well-grounded in the film's visual schema, the French title, La vie d'Adèle (The Life of Adèle), is better. I can think of one plausible justification for this, which I'm going to hold on to for later. Which gets back to the three-hour running time, because if there's one outrageously obvious place to start backing off on that, it's one of the real-time sex scenes that, by expanding to ten minutes instead of just two or three, only really informs us that Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux are good sports, without actually communicating anything about how sex is experienced by humans that wasn't already clear. What I am is a seasoned film-watcher, and in that capacity, I can say this about the sex scenes: there are too many of them, and at least two of them are too long. I am not now and have never been a lesbian, so I really shouldn't pretend like I have a meaningful opinion on whether the sex scenes staged by a straight male director and two straight female actors are meaningfully true to the lesbian experience, but I'll say that the complaints by Julie Maroh, author of the source material, that it's very male gazey seem pretty much spot on, and anyway when a lesbian author looks at the adaptation of her lesbian lovers and tells the world, "that's not how we do it", I'm inclined to at least give her the benefit of the doubt. The explicit, barely-simulated lesbian sex.
Maybe I'm wrong about that, for certainly the grand scale of time the film covers justifies that kind of epic treatment, but there are a lot of small moments that are… fine, but the difference between a movie that needs to be three hours long and a movie that needn't aren't a plethora of "fine" moments. More than most Palme d'Or winners, I mean.įirst, the running time: it's a "lifespan of a romantic relationship" drama that is great at three hours, and would probably be just as great and in the same ways if it was, say, two hours and a half. The Palme d'Or winner for 2013, Blue Is the Warmest Color, comes with some serious baggage attached. It was so great to have her on that movie.World premiere: 23 May, 2013, Cannes International Film Festival “My character would not have been the same without her. “Lea was such a good friend,” Exarchopoulos said. Sometimes it was hard and difficult to be in this film,” Seydoux said.Įxarchopoulos agreed that her co-star was essential to bringing out the best in her own performance. “I’m shy and she’s not, so it was a very good combination. STORY: ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’ Director Slams ‘Arrogant, Spoiled’ Star in Open Letter Seydoux, who is nearly a decade older than her co-star and onscreen love interest Exarchopoulos, said their personalities complemented each other despite the age difference. Other times, we would be tired, wondering when he would stop.” Sometimes we would get to the set and he won’t shoot anything. “If you are sleeping during a break, he will shoot it. “Even in the train on our way back to Paris eating a cake, and he loves the way you are doing it, he will shoot it,” Exarchopoulos said. I had an intuition that I had to make the movie with them,” Kechiche said.Įxarchopoulos said there was no real schedule to shooting with Kechiche, because he loved to improvise and would shoot anytime, anywhere.
“They have two different but complementary personalities. Kechiche said his stars were “obviously the best choice” for his film. PHOTOS: 25 of Fall’s Most Anticipated Movies