Film Review: Blue Is The Warmest Colour (18) (France 2013) (Director: Abdellatif Kechiche) (French with English Subtitles), The Filmhouse Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Saturday 30.11.2013, 17:20

This is the film that won the Palme d'Or at this years Cannes Film Festival. The film winning was deemed controversial and I'm not clear why. Usually this is awarded to the director of the film, though it was presented to the director and the two lead actresses.

The film follows Adele played by Adele Exarchopoulos for the duration of the film, starting when she is fifteen and still at school. Adele along with others of her age is beginning a process/period of sexual exploration. She starts with boys, though then an older girl, Emma, an art student, catches her eye and she finds her affections growing towards this girl and in turn they develop an intense relationship.

The film is three hours long, though never feels as though dragging, which to me is always a sign of a well made and edited film. The performance by Adele Exarchopoulos is of particular note, in this film it appeared as though nothing was beyond expression for her. At time she appeared particularly raw and vulnerable.

The actress playing Emma, Lea Seydoux, is the more established actress, though her performance struck me as having a coldness which made it hard to warm to her character. Sadly I felt the film was tokenistic in how it brought in some other elements of the characters lives, such as their families.

Now is time for me to be possibly controversial. This film was raved about by critics and lauded with prestigious award, yet I would say that the film although centering upon a lesbian couple, does not inform regarding the nature of intimate relationships with any greater or differing depth than other films I have seen that centre upon heterosexual relationships. (Possibly this is the point, that ultimately intimate relations of any kind can have similar issues such as subservience and imbalance of focus/attention.) It is due to this that I struggle to understand why this film was lauded to the degree it was. The film may be well acted and edited, though its story is sadly lacking. This has also lead me to wonder whether the overwhelming positive attention it received was due to it centering upon a lesbian relationship, so that those responding/commenting can appear 'politically correct', if this were the case this would be just as disappointing due to also being tokenistic. - Though I do also feel I have to express that I think it is great that a film centering around a 'gay' relationship has had as much attention as this has got, it is just a shame it is not a better film.      

If you wish to see a recent great film by this director, I recommend watching 'Cous Cous' (2007), and if you wish to see a recent great film about a gay relationship, I would recommend watching 'Weekend' (2011). Though Adele Exarchopoulos is an actress to look our for in the future.

Rating: 06/10.