La Vie D'Adéle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (aka Blue Is The Warmest Colour) I didn't read anything about this film as I'm a spoiler phobe. Palme D'or at Cannes made this one high on the list of "to watch" lists and I like French films. The only thing I have read about it was an argument between one of the lead actresses, Léa Seydoux and the Director Abdellatif Keshishe. She claimed that they were exploited by the explicit love making scenes and he replied that she didn't have any objection pre, during and after Cannes. So I was ready for explicit scenes.
But I was not ready on how explicit they were. There were no boundaries in the lovemaking scenes of the two actresses. None. Everything is shown and I'm not sure how necessary they were to the film. Or now necessary to make them this way. The main thing that ties the two character is how much they enjoy the sex. Still I'm not sure whether we needed to see this much and this long of their intimacy. This is the director's choice however and I respect that.
Spoilers
Setting this issue aside, I liked the film a lot. I don't know about the English title but the French one is apt since the film is about Adéle's life. We are introduced to her when she is in high school. She has her circle of friends and a popular and hansome boy who likes her. She goes out with him and even has sex but she doesn't enjoy it and thinks about the blue haired woman she saw just before she met with him. She is the only daughter of middle class parents who love her, she has a secret stash of candy bars under her bed and she enjoys teaching and wants to be a teacher some day. She regularly writes journals and loves reading novels. By this time I like this girl a lot and want her to be happy. One day a girl from one of her classes kisses her on the lips and she was so happy after that and the next day she kissed her at the loo at school. And the girl said she was only experimenting and it was just a spur of the moment thing. Poor Adéle was crushed. And Adéle Exarchopoulos is excellent, excellent. I hope that she'll be in more films since her performance was so natural and sincere.
Then her gay friend takes her to a gay bar and she sees the blue haired girl on the street and follows her to a lesbian bar. They meet and after some courtship, become lovers.
Here the story gets interesting. Emma is an independent painter who flaunts her homosexuality and her parents are artistic types who encourage her. They are surprised the middle class concerns of Adéle (like getting a job where there will be a regular salary) but are good towards her. Adéle'a parents meet Emma as her philosophy tutor and have no idea that they are actually lovers. They say to Emma that it is very hard to make a living through art and it will only be possible if she meets and marries a rich man to support her.
So after some years we find them living together. Adéle, despite being very happy with Emma still doesn't come out of the closet, and is not very into Emma's artsy crowd. Emma tries to get her write more stuff to be published (not just her diary) and becomes very close with an ex lover at her graduation party.
This part of the film seemed very similar to me not only because I was a middle class girlfriend in an artsy crowd but also this trope is liked in Turkish cinema as well. In the film Beyaz Bisiklet (White Bycycle) a rich and cultured young man meets a manicurist at a resort town and they get married since they have great sex and love each other but recognise their fundemental differences in the early months of marriage. I like that sad sad film a lot and there is another one called Düş Gezginleri (Dream Travellers) where a doctor meets her elementary school friend who has become a prostitute and they start an affair and move to Istanbul where she stars her own practice and their cultural differences beat their love in the end.
So it happens to Adéle too. Suddenly Emma sees more and more of her crowd and Adéle cheats her with a colleague from work (a man). Emma throws her out of the house (Emma'a house) and breaks up with her.
They meet again after some years and the chemistry is still there but Emma is wise not to start anything since she knows that one cannot build a strong relationship solely based on good sex. The final act is when Adéle goes to a show of Emma. Everyone is so nice to her but it is obvious that she doesn't belong and she loves Emma so much and there is nothing she can do but slowly walk back home alone.
I liked the film a lot and loved Adéle character. I was willing to watch more of her and found myself surprised when the film ended (I didn't realise this film is very long). So I'll recommend with a warning of explicit (and long) intimate scenes.
One more thing to me Léa Seydoux was not a lead in the film. Her role was more of a supporting one.
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