4 Stunning-Love-Stories out of 4
Utilizing the weaker English title is a poor choice when discussing a film with such detail and subtext as Blue is the Warmest Colour (French title La Vie d’Adele). I feel it only appropriate to discuss Abdellatif Kechiche’s emotionally riveting directorial achievement by its original French name, which I believe holds far more meaning.
La Vie d’Adele is a stunning work of art that serves to unite the boundaries between the lover and the loved, and the observer and the observed. Based on Julie Maroh’s graphic novel, Le bleu est une couleur chaude, it is a film about two women falling in and out of love. However, this is not a movie about two French lesbians. It betrays a weakness of the mind to focus on the gender of the two lead characters.
No, this is not simply a movie about two women falling in love. It is a movie about two people experiencing a deep, penetrating passion that one can only experience with another human being. So intrinsic is their romance that we, as the audience, can only watch as they fulfill every aspect of their lives. So powerful is their connection to each other that we can only hold our breath as they steal each others’ breath away.
What Kechiche has created can only be described as a pure example of human love.
Of course, it’s a crime against Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux to give all the credit to Kechiche, as the two actresses deserve all the praise one can afford them. Exarchopoulos plays Adele, a young woman on the brink of existence. Beginning the film in high school, the audience watches her life as she tumbles through adolescence, experiencing romance and love with Emma, the blue-haired art student played by Seydoux. In Emma, we see a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, experiencing the last few fleeting moments of her time as a student.
Before they meet one another, the two seem empty. Adele and Emma’s lives fuse together at the exact moment when Adele discovers her blossoming sexuality. Emma is clearly more than happy to help. Together, they seem passionately complete, as if they’ve been waiting their entire lives to meet each other.
With the aid of cinematography by Sofian El Fani, we literally see a close-up of Adele’s life at all times. It’s almost as if the camera is in love with her character. Other than an occasional establishing shot, El Fani’s camera refuses to look away from either Adele or Emma’s faces. The audience is allowed to experience each moment of their lives as if we are living through the couple. Long tracking shots through hallways and streets, intimate glances between characters, and romantic passion all boils through El Fani’s lens as his camera refuses to look at anything but the perfect imperfections of their faces.
Each moment of passion is on display, and together, everything Adele and Emma do is sensual. The mere act of eating a bowl of pasta is portrayed as a life-affirming act of self-fulfilment. Seriously, I could watch Exarchopoulos happily gobble down a plate of spaghetti all day because of how alive she is when she eats.
Often, I found myself wondering how much closer to the characters the audience could be. Then, we see them making love.
Yes, this is a contemporary love story, which means that, yes, we see the characters make love.
In long, passionate sequences, the camera refuses to shy away from Adele and Emma’s most private moments. The audience soon realizes that we are watching the most intimate moment in the lives of these two people.
We are voyeurs, and El Fani’s camera and Kechiche’s direction force us to watch. It’s not an act of imprisonment, but merely an extension of our relationship to the characters. If we truly want to understand what it’s like to be Adele and Emma, then we must experience what they have experienced.
The film’s three-hour run-time could draw issue from some viewers, but to watch two people who love each other try to hurt each other so much is heartbreaking. The pacing, therefore, is perfect.
La Vie d’Adele is proud to boast that it won the coveted Palm D’Or, the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize, and perhaps the greatest honour any movie can be bestowed. I believe that this story of love and passion deserves every praise it has garnered. I also believe that this film is one of the best portrayals of passion and romantic love that has ever been captured on film.