Representations of homosexuality in cinema in a respective and authentic feeling manner are few and far between; even when they are represented, gay audience members, like myself are often annoyed by either an overly stereotyped portrayal of gay culture (Queer As Folk), or an annoying focus on sex, these films can often be sussed out by the half naked men and women on the dvd cover. In the case of Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is The Warmest Colour, the winner of the Palme D’or at the Cannes Film Festival, its has become notorious for its graphic representations of exaggerated lesbian sex, and its unflinching portrayal of self discovery has been pushed to the wayside.
Blue Is The Warmest Colour focus on 15 year old Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos) who, early on in the film starts to discover that in addition to men, she has romantic affection towards women. The key to this realisation, which is a recurring plot in queer cinema, is how gradual Adele is constructed as a emphatic character and how endearing her gradual understanding and admittance to herself is portrayed in a very realistic fashion. In addition to a sensitive handling of realising her own sexuality, Adele is given a great sense of depth and humanity by Exarchopoulos, who delivers a ridiculously committed and heart-breaking performance, that sadly, but expectedly, wasn’t given recognition during the awards season. The reason why Adele becomes aware of this affection is due to her chance encounter with the intriguing, blue haired Emma (Lea Seydoux), who’s confidence with her sexuality and body image grabs Adele’s attention from the second she lays eyes on her. The film, in almost episodic instalments gradually develops the central relationship over a long period of time, making each moment of character development feel organic. Never have I felt so attached to a character in a film before, to the where I could guess there feelings or their actions before they expressed them in the film. However the result of creating extremely well rounded and human characters does come at a cost, as the film clocks in three minutes shy of three hours which understandably could be a turn off for some. It doesn’t help when there are scenes so obviously unneeded in the film, like the gratuitously extended sex scenes, that could have clearly been trimmed a little, or infact not have been there at all. Despite the labouriously lengthy run time, Blue Is The Warmest Colour is never boring, even when we see Adele going about the more mundane moments of her life, the documentarian feel and trust that the film earns early on means that it feels like a window into a very interesting characters life who’s friends, family and relationships are seductively entertaining and quite creepily realistic.
In terms of representing gay culture the film has received some critique by lesbian audience members who have found the depictions of sex in the film to be annoyingly unrealistic, in addition to the controversy surrounding director Kechiche’s filmmaking methods, as technicians on the film found his methods to be borderline harassment and star Lea Seydoux has said that she felt comparable to a prostitute and would never work with Kechiche again. Despite this the scenes that take place outside of the bedroom are very well handled and grounded, while it doesn’t stand toe to toe with 2011’s Weekend, which has the arguably the most balanced representation of a homosexual relationship, Blue Is The Warmest Colour is easily a step forward in helping the progression of homosexuality in a less stereotypical nature.
Unafraid, brave and intoxicating, Blue Is The Warmest Colour is a rare film that escapes the shackles of a formulaic depiction of its subject matter, in exchange for a film that, regardless of your sexual orientation is one of the most heartfelt and daring films about falling in love, with stricter sensibilities towards editing this could have been a masterpiece, as it stands its still pretty close.
thereelnetwork 
It doesn’t help when there are scenes so obviously unneeded in the film, like the gratuitously extended sex scenes, that could have clearly been trimmed a little, or infact not have been there at all. Why shouldn’t there have been sex scenes at all since the movie is loosely based on the Award Winning comic book Le Blue est une Couleur Chaude or La Vie d’Adele ? For anyone who knows the Award Winning and his previous movies;they are long and they ALL have sex European movies it seems aren’t for you if you can’t handle a 3 hour movie with sex and with all due respect these are Award Winning actresses that have won the César=French Oscars for Blue in Adele Exarchopoulos as 2014 Female Breakthrough Actress and Léa Seydoux was nominated for her 4th straight César Award for Blue is the Warmest Color and Grand Central another movie that also premiered in Cannes in 2013 and was also prized and with all due respect nobody saw 2011′s Weekend because it seems to have quite frankly only played in legbt festival Blue won Cannes;was nominated for a BAFTA;Golden Globes;won the French Golden Globes = Prix Lumieres,Prix Louis Delluc and so on and so forth this is not a gay movie but a love story about 2 women and you weren’t happy with the sex scenes? what did you think? these actresses are straight and with boyfriends not porn stars and I didn’t know that lesbians had sex the same way!
I don’t think the content or quality of a film should be judged by its source material whether it be an adaptation of a novel or a replication of an historical event, even if there were sex scenes in the graphic novel their purpose and context may not translate in the same manner on screen. Neither do I think my enjoyment of a film be swayed by the quality of the directors filmography, nor its genre, though you don’t specify that European cinema as a genre, your comment indicates that you perceive it as a body of work with similarities when you say “European movies it seems aren’t for you. I do agree with your criticism about the awards, I should have specified the Academy Awards where the film sadly didn’t get a nod for Best Foreign Language Film. In your regards about sex in the film I simply didn’t think at least the length and frequency served the story in a positive manner, in fact they detracted as I found to be as monotonous as if they were a pointless repetitive action scene which stalls the momentum of the film, and my main gripe with the sex scenes was the notorious ‘scissoring’ scene which implied that they were getting pleasure. I have seen a video of lesbians on youtube who don’t understand how people believe that any of the participants are receiving pleasure at all and it appeared to be an uneducated outlook on lesbian sex, however I am a gay male so I don’t know the ins and outs of the topic. Thanks for commenting though, I still enjoyed the film though, saying that it was close to being a masterpiece and its clear from your passion that you enjoyed it, which is great!
FormerylFred, do you base all of your opinions on whether they have been well received/won an award/have a good cast? Think for yourself instead of parroting others’ opinions. The Reel Network, this piece really stood out as having been formed from independent thought; well done, not many people are so brave as to question things these days.
I am a lesbian and seeing this film has given me a deep disgust and rejection of seeing a morbid bastard sadly reduces us to the same old thing: mere objects of male curiosity and porn. Here there is no depth, no brilliant script, no plot, no transcendent issue… nothing more than 15 minutes of ridiculous wild sex for men with the intention of selling the movie disguised as the biggest love history story ever told, but it’s only pornography. If two men have been the protagonists (or a man and a woman), the director would never have recreated in a sex scene between them like this and the movie would not have been so brightfull for critics. This movie offers nothing more than the curiosity of female homosexuality and especially the explicit images to prove it. If the couple had been heterosexual and if realistic sex had been treated in a more subtle manner, this movie never had been so praised. But of course, heterosexual critics liked it a lot and for that reason this film won Cannes. It sucks. What a shame. Sex scenes in that movie are made for heterosexual men only.
Sorry, but I can’t admire nothing in a film with a male director abusing actresses and putting his pornish fantasies all over the screen and calling it art.
I am a lesbian and seeing this film has given me a deep disgust and rejection of seeing a morbid man as Kechiche sadly reduces us to the same old thing: mere objects of male curiosity and porn. Here there is no depth, no brilliant script, no plot, no transcendent issue… nothing more than 15 minutes of ridiculous wild sex for men with the intention of selling the movie disguised as the biggest love history story ever told, but it’s only pornography. If two men have been the protagonists (or a man and a woman), the director would never have recreated in a sex scene between them like this and the movie would not have been so brightfull for critics. This movie offers nothing more than the curiosity of female homosexuality and especially the explicit images to prove it. If the couple had been heterosexual and if realistic sex had been treated in a more subtle manner, this movie never had been so praised. But of course, heterosexual critics liked it a lot and for that reason this film won Cannes. It sucks. What a shame.
Sorry, but I can’t admire nothing in a film with a male director abusing actresses and putting his pornish fantasies all over the screen and calling it art.