Review of Blue is the Warmest Colour

Before going into Blue is the Warmest Colour, I was worried about the fact that this is a lesbian film made by a straight man (allegedly, quite a terrible one, too). The problem with this is that such films tend to go one of two ways: either the film becomes a sexual fantasy from the male gaze (Room in Rome, which, despite what anyone says, is nothing more than a beautifully-shot “nudie cutie”, the sort of film Russ Meyer or Jesus Franco could make with a high budget) or a film which, in order to avoid being exploitative, removes all sexuality from the film (John Sayles’ otherwise brilliant Lianna).

I was also worried about seeing a sexual romantic film, because, again, cinema seems incapable of creating sexual romances. The last great sexual romance goes back to 1989’s My Nights are More Beautiful than Your Days, a film that even Zulawski himself could not recreate, not for a lack of trying. The great cinematic romances tend to be neutered, with the greatest cinematic romance, Brief Encounter, having absolutely no sex, implied or otherwise. Once sex finds its way into romance, the genre tends to change towards the erotic thriller or some other moralizing genre. Think: why is there no such thing as an erotic romance or erotic romantic comedy? Because the erotic romance is softcore pornography and the erotic romantic comedy is hardcore pornography (at least from the porn-chic era).

So, clearly, the film had the odds stacked against it. Well, it didn’t do much to allay my fears. Despite all claims of authenticity, the film still comes off as a masculine fantasy of female sexuality (a shortened version of this may have fit in well in Fucking Different). At about the two hour mark, a mouthpiece for the director mentions that men create art of the feminine form, because they yearn to experience feminine sexuality, a woman’s orgasm. I loved this line, because it placed the whole film into a context, but then something hit me: So, the film is not to blame for its “sins”, but do those sins disappear? If the work is not to blame, Kechiche still is. Kechiche’s ideology of how lesbianism works, the sexuality that takes over their lives, the constant, indiscriminate partner switching, the idea that all a gay woman needs is a good dicking, these are all ideas visible in the film and which must be placed upon someone.

Another sin in the film is a sin of filmmaking. Why do artists celebrate the female rapist? The first time I remember encountering this was in The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, where a teenage girl has a sexual relationship with a middle-aged woman and it is shown as beneficial. For some reason, lesbian relationships between underage girls and adult women are shown as a good thing more often than not. In this film, this relationship is portrayed (Emma is the sort of woman who seduces a high school student by showing up at her high school at the right time…Adele is 17, she is at least 21). The relationship is shown as being toxic, but it is difficult to tell if Kechiche himself believes that it is detrimental. Personally, as much as I like Lea Seydoux, I hated her character so much! She was a horrible, cruel, pretentious person who never seemed like she wanted to help Adele. All of this may be moot, however, if only for one point, a rather obvious one: I am not a lesbian! I attempt to question how realistic the relationship portrayed is, but I have never experienced this relationship, so maybe I cannot comment, but I would suggest that I have as much right to comment as Kechiche.

Despite all of that, I can’t say Blue is the Warmest Colour is a bad film. In fact, it’s quite great. What is it that makes it great, though? I can’t help but think that it’s a lot of small details. All of the beautiful close-ups. The constant noise pollution in the scene where Emma meets Adele’s parents. The metal on tooth sound whenever anyone eats spaghetti. A single sigh by Emma as she has her face buried in the side of Adele’s chest. The sight of Adele eating spaghetti early in the film, licking her utensils while her lips are smeared with pasta sauce, showing a young girl on her way to becoming a sexual woman, while still in a juvenile stage. In fact, if I may say so without sounding creepy, Adele Exarchopoulos’ mouth had me fixated throughout the film! Whenever she smiles, the lines around her lips and mouth come together to create a cartoonish smile, making her look all the more childish and innocent. Watch her mouth if and when you see the film and you’ll know what I mean.

The only way to conclude this is to say that Blue is the Warmest Colour fails as a romance, but it succeeds as a coming-of-age film, where a realization of human cruelty is a part of the realization involved in the coming of age.