Review // Blue is the Warmest Colour

It is impossible to implant a camera in to someone’s brain and make a film through their eyes, but when such technology is created, expect director Abdellatif Kechiche to be first in line.  The French director’s Blue Is The Warmest Colour is a beautiful study in first love, sexual discovery and the often painful transition into adulthood, all captured with an intimacy and intensity rarely seen in mainstream cinema today.

Blue follows Adèle, a typical teenage girl slogging through high school and gossiping with her girlfriends about boys.  However when she meets the blue haired Emma she is propelled in to a sexual awakening and a journey of self-discovery.  Over the course of several years we watch the characters as they fall in love, create a home, advance through careers and eventually grow apart.  On the surface it is an old story, one which many audience members have lived themselves, but that is the peculiar beauty of the film; Kechiche provides a mirror through Adèle on to which you cannot help but project your own passions, despair and heartbreak.

Filmed largely in close-up the film is at times a claustrophobic experience.  We are as involved with Adèle as she is with Emma, and the camera leaves nothing to the imagination.  We watch her eat, sleep, work, make love and everything in between.  It seems at first unrelenting and uncomfortable to watch Adèle slurp spaghetti or smoke a cigarette, often only her mouth filling the screen.  But as she progresses through her passionate romance, so do we, possessing her more and more fully.  It is a story of infatuation.  Adèle is infatuated with Emma, and the camera is infatuated with Adèle.  The two lead actors, Léa Sedoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos,  both expressed exasperation with the director after the film’s release and it is easy to imagine why.  The performances reverberate with true emotion, the type of emotion that only actors pushed to their limits could provide.  Despite the methods, the final product is undeniable, and the two young actors shine brilliantly on screen.

Blue Is The Warmest Colour is not an easy viewing experience, but it is a beautiful portrait of humanity and the simple things that connect us all.  Love, lust, heartbreak are all reflected in the dark eyes of Adèle.  And while it may not always be pretty, it’s as authentic a love story as you’ll ever see on screen.

Review by Evan Arppe.

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