Since its premiere in Cannes, much attention has been paid to the film's divisively explicit sex scenes, with Maroh herself likening the 'brutal and surgical display of so-called lesbian sex' to heterosexual porn that a gay audience would find 'ridiculous', and concluding damningly: 'As a feminist and a lesbian spectator, I can not endorse the direction Kechiche took on these matters.'Įqually troubling are the cast and crew's tales of mistreatment on set, with both lead actresses variously telling the press that they wouldn't work with Kechiche again. At times it ceases altogether, leaving Adèle to battle on alone in the wake of insurmountable (and self-inflicted) loss.īut through it all we never doubt that the love between them is real, that they are both caught in the throes of an unruly, intoxicating passion that occasionally threatens to engulf and overwhelm them. After the inevitable culture clashes (played out in juxtaposed dinners with their respective families) and social mismatches (Emma's artisan crowd are quietly condescending towards aspiring schoolteacher Adèle), their relationship grows, changes, falters, reawakens.

Exarchopoulos is Adèle, struggling to come to terms with her sexuality amid a culture of homophobic abuse until she meets blue-haired Emma (Seydoux), an artist with a forthright sense of self. Originally titled La vie d'Adèle, chapitres 1 & 2, Kechiche's raw love story traces the formation and disintegration of a relationship so powerful that it transforms the life of its coming-of-age heroine. Their portrayal of a blossoming, fragmenting relationship is shot through with genuine grace and conviction even when the film itself descends into indulgence. Certainly the performances by Léa Seydoux (already an important screen presence) and newcomer Adèle Exarchopoulos are extraordinary. When Abdellatif Kechiche's lengthy and 'freely inspired' adaptation of Julie Maroh's graphic novel Le bleu est une couleur chaude won the Palme d'Or at Cannes earlier this year, its two lead actresses were officially recognised in the citation alongside the director, an unprecedented acknowledgement of the defining role of the key cast that flew in the face of the festival's longstanding love affair with the haughty tenets of auterism.

Blue is the warmest colour (2013)