Blue is the Warmest Colour is a unique calibre of film that stays with you for an indefinite and possibly infinite amount of time. It is both a hugely complex and beautifully simple portrayal of the most intricate elements of humanity and ultimately, love.
You, as an audience, become so utterly and unequivocally submerged into the lives of these two girls (Adele and Emma) that it is almost impossible at times to believe that what you are witnessing is indeed fiction, this is partly down to the incredible camera work and controversial directing (Abdellatif Kechiche) that creates no distance between you and Adele (Adele Exarchoposlos). The camera leaves no emotion or action untouched, and at times this can leave you feeling almost invasive and unjustly privy to such private emotions. Yet this allows for the script and dialogue itself to take a backseat, and let the open and utterly compellingly beautiful face of Adele Exarchoposlos lead you throughout.
It is this almost unentitled intimacy we are forced to share with the characters that poses as the problem when regarding the much talked about sex scene between the two female leads. The phrase ‘pornographic’ has been heavily thrown about in the media since the film’s release, yet pornographic doesn’t quite fit the bill. Yes, there is no denying that what we witness is most definitely full on, hard core, girl on girl sex. Yet that is where it ends. Because it is just sex. Real sex. And it is only the matter of intrusiveness – which works to great effect in all other aspects – that creates the feelings of shame, awkwardness and embarrassment; because the moment that these two characters share is utterly ground-breaking and one of profound importance, that we feel this discomfort for having shared that with them. It is an utter shame that this creative choice of the director taints what is the most heartfelt, pulsating, living, breathing portrayal of the unpredictable journey of a first love.
Adele Exarchoposlos is transcendent in the role of Adele, and her uncompromising and unbelievably true performance is, first and foremost, not only the visual skeleton of the film, but also the flesh, body and beating heat in this incredible feat of film making and story-telling.
Blue is the Warmest Colour is currently hitting cinemas over the UK and Ireland now!
Written by Milena Parker-Jurd
The Verse
Beautiful!