Review of Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) by Harry W — 17 Mar 2014

Blue is the Warmest Colour was explained to me by a friend as a 3 hour film featuring a 10 minute lesbian sex scene and one of the women from Inglorious Basterds. As she is a talented actress, that was the selling point for me.

There is a lot to say about a film like Blue is the Warmest Colour because it's a hell of an experience. I will admit that its length bothered me a bit because especially within the last hour I found that the length had caught up with me. And the effect of the final hour was mostly about coming to terms with things and it went on at a rather more slow pace than the rest of the film, so Blue is the Warmest Colour indeed is a bit of a stretch. But still, it was an exceptional film.

To be Frank, Blue is the Warmest Colour is unforgettable because it is raw and honest. It isn't in the slightest bit afraid to tackle real relationships as they transition from experimenting to healthy adult love without skimping on the sexual nature of them. And thanks to the directional skill of Abdellatif Keniche, it goes through its complex story piece by piece without skipping over anything important. It allows viewers to analyse all the elements of its protagonist Adele's life and how they contribute to the making of her as a person and a woman. It explores the complicated theme of identity crisis and love without ever falling into formulaic, predictable or melodramatic territory and in the process manages to educate viewers and truly stimulate thoughts within them. Blue is the Warmest Colour has a big story to tell and respects its viewers enough to tell it without lying about the truth in its relationships and the importance of the sexual nature of them. I learned a lot about love from Blue is the Warmest Colour, more than I could learn from most romantic films. I learned so much that it was nearly overwhelming to take in. I walked away from Blue is the Warmest Colour mesmerised by all the love within the film and put into making it, and it reminds us just what real films are all about.

Blue is the Warmest Colour is a visually striking film. It's cinematography and scenery is beautiful, but most importantly it captures the true beauty of the human form. The camera is constantly focused on the faces of the actors, when they are thinking and when they are eating. Every movement of the actors is artistic, and director Abdellatif Keniche knows this and plays it to the film's benefit. The cinematography is always either still or panning along nicely, and when it pans actors the bodies of its two lead actresses we pick up on every beautiful quality of them. Their smiles, their eyes, their skin. Blue is the Warmest Colour features the cinematography usually reserved for an erotic film, and it is used so perfectly that it elevates the style of the film above simple erotic cinema or pornography. The visual style of Blue is the Warmest Colour is unforgettable.

Some of the finest scenes are the ones involving sexual activity. They capture the true face of pleasure on both actors involved, and they skin across the beauty of the form if each person. Most of the time, both figures are women. And in the style of the artwork within the film which is largely focused on the beauty of the female form within the movie, Blue is the Warmest Colour conveys why females are considered to be figures of such beauty without objectifying them by putting excessive emphasis on them it genitals as a pornography would. The beauty of the female human form has never been captured as perfectly on film as it is in Blue is the Warmest Colour, and the work of cinematography master Sofian El Fani is unforgettable.

The symbolism is also excellent. The title of the film gave me an inkling too keep an eye out for the colour blue, and in actuality the colour has never been more vibrant on the cinematic screen than in was in Blue is the Warmest Colour. It was so energetic everywhere, and while blue was around everything felt, as the title would suggest, warm. The colour begins to decrease in the second half of the film as the dramatic aspects become more and more negative, and the film ends on a note of only one frame of blue in sight. The atmosphere of the film is determined by many things, but one things that surprisingly perfects it with symbolism is through its use of the colour blue. The symbolism in Blue is the Warmest colour is exceptional and very surprising, and it makes the film more of a visual treat than it already was.

Blue is the Warmest Colour is packed to the brim with unforgettable imagery, and that is one of the things that makes it beautiful. But it is also unforgettable due to the skill of the cast.

Quite frankly, the lead performance of Adele Exarchopulos is one of the most ambitious female performances I have ever seen in my life. Adele Exarchopulos proves herself to be an absolutely fearless actress and gives one of the best female performances I have ever seen in the history of cinema. As the lead actress who has to carry the film through 179 minutes, she is the source of the importance in the story as it revolves all around her. But by establishing herself as one of this generation's next great actresses she carries it all the way to the end, not afraid to let loose her emotions from within or show off her body. Adele Exatchopulos gives a performance so real and so open that she hides nothing, and that creates a feeling that suggests Blue is the Warmest Colour isn't even a film. She makes it perfectly real with the brutal honesty of her lead performance which audiences are likely to find themselves so connected to that they are empathising for her and feeling what she is. She makes Blue is the Warmest Colour a great three hour experience, and she is a thoroughly beautiful and talented actress. Her performance and appearance is like a mix of Lauren Ambrose in Six Feet Under and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. By that I mean that her character Adele has a youthful energy which is also burdened by her own uncertainties and insecurities. There is a lot to learn from Blue is the Warmest Colour, and Adele Exarchopulos teaches us most of it without even saying much. A lot of the time it is just her alone and yet her emotions are expressed visually perfectly.

Her performance is followed closely by the immense talents of Lea Seydoux whose performance is one where she holds nothing back. It is easy to tell that Emma is a character with a lot of love in her, and as the story grows more and more, so does she. You can see the dramatic aspects of her character gradually becoming more and more predominant as the story develops until the dramatic climax of the film takes place, and the whole time she has a grip over audiences. Lea Seydoux is an excellent lead alongside Adele Exatchopulos and she is both very sexy and very sweet, and audiences are likely to fall in love with her the same way Adele does. Lea Seydoux is another powerful cast member in Blue is the Warmest Colour, and her chemistry with Adele Exartchopulos is packed with a lot of genuine emotion which is essentially a shock to see because of how powerfully honest it is. The love they share has got to be real to some extent in real life, because it is actually that good.

So Blue is the Warmest Colour is long and somewhat slow, but it is a beautiful romantic film which is full of amazing acting and an unforgettable visual style which is likely to leave viewers amazed and educated on the true nature of love and adult relationships, as well as the complications of the female psyche when facing identity crisis.