Earlier I had written reviews on two (Fire and Circumstance) films with lesbianism as the theme. This is the third in line and hope you would enjoy reading this (and watching the film subsequently.) Be prepared to experience unlimited excitement of 179 minutes. And, of course, ensure your kids are asleep before you watch the movie. Expect the unexpected!!
Blue Is the Warmest Colour is a 2013 French romantic film written, produced, and directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. The cast include Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux. The movie is based on the French graphic novel of the same name by Julie Maroh. The film won the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The actresses were also given the Palme as a special prize. The film runs for almost three hours (179 minutes) yet not boring at any stage of it.
This is a controversial film that stirred so called established society. There have been many a film based on lesbianism. I have seen at least three of them. Deepa Mehta’s Fire from India, Maryam Keshavarz’s Circumstance from Iran and now this. All three films stirred the conservative societies like India and Iran and Blue Is the Warmest Colour also became controversial due to its extremely lengthy graphic content of lovemaking of the two girls.
There is this recent research that says every woman is either bisexual or gay and never straight. I don’t know much about it. And the big question is why not? After all, women have more sensitive parts in their bodies that are related to excite both opposite and same sex and one cannot rule out such attractions to both the sexes.
However, the movie Blue Is the Warmest Colour is full of “explicit sexual content” and you might feel embarrassed to see them even all alone! I enjoyed lesbian sex scenes in the two movies I mentioned above but not in this. They are too much under any circumstance. I don’t know why the director wanted to dramatize the sex scene to this level. I was uncomfortable watching it. Cannot understand how one could see this on the big screen.
The movie depicts how love, jealousy, hatred, betrayal, and revenge that lead one to another while one is in a relationship. I thought it was common for heterosexual love and not in gay love.
When shown at Cannes, the film stunned some critics with its long and graphic sex scenes and they were of the view that the movie should be reedited before it goes to public theaters. The movie won the Palme d’Or prize. The judging panel, which included Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee and Nicole Kidman, made an unprecedented move to award the top prize to the film’s two main actresses along with the director. If Spielberg thinks it is praiseworthy, you can hardly disagree.
Nanda Wanninayaka 