Blue Is the Warmest Color

I’ll be honest, I was afraid of this. My subjective viewer experience was terrified of a three-hour long French lesbian art film, and I believed that not even the fact that it will probably be a very good three-hour long French lesbian art film would help. But the fears were unwarranted, the film gripped me from the beginning and didn’t let me go until the end. Fantastic performances, incredibly firm direction; a thrilling experience. I wouldn’t cut a single minute of it, every scene in Blue is the Warmest Colour makes sense. (2013-12-16)

It’s very rare to see a festival flick so relatable, with artistic choices that fully support the power of the message and the emotional effect. The three-hour series of details on the faces of actors, whose ordinary activities deliberately don’t deviate from the process of the heroine’s development, may have some passages that are almost unnecessarily long, but the creator would be able to justify them without hesitation. We are not only watching Adele, we are Adele and we are experiencing with her tense moments as participatorily as the film medium will allow. The sex scenes are perhaps too long, but also inevitable, given the consistency of the process of following the internal and sexual development of a fragile heroine, and they are also pleasant for the male viewer (both actresses not only act great but look great, too). Sexuality can be a heavy burden and here we see it unadorned and very realistic. 85% (2020-09-20)

The problem isn’t in its (justified) enormous length, but it should have taken a break between chapters 1 and 2. A good few years too, to let Adele grow up, because it seems quite out of place when, in the second phase, the scarcely twenty-year-old girl plays a middle aged woman and all that was different from her teenage phase were the glasses. Another problem are the explicit sex scenes; how they were performed didn’t fit with the mood of the movie. More than anything else, it seems like Kechiche wanted to quench his thirst for slapping young meat on set. Paradoxically, the best bed scene was the dialog after the garden party. And not least is the problematic closing twenty minutes when it gradually fizzles out in a way quite unfair to the qualities of the rest of the movie. These difficulties still don’t outweigh the fact that there are still entire passages (enough to make a long feature movie) when the story of Adele and Emma’s relationship is unrivalled in authenticity, drawing the viewer through all of the good and bad emotions that are integral to any relationship. P.S.: If you are racking your brains about the role of the diary that there so much secret and important talk about, but then nothing (not even the MacGuffin), so I recommend finding out what work this is based on and what the narrative style the original is. (2013-11-22)

From the very first moment, you can tell that this was directed by a creator who knew exactly how to handle every scene. If he wanted to portray desire, he did it perfectly, but equally so boredom, hesitation, inability to fit in with the group, the beauty and spontaneity of lovemaking, as well as the sweatiness and speed of sex. It’s three hours long, yet every scene is in its rightful place. You don't even want to believe it until you see it. And what's the best part? Abdellatif Kechiche simply depicted things (relationships) as they are, without embellishment, just being realistic, which sometimes means being harsh. It doesn't have to look nice, but why not capture reality as it sometimes is? Thanks to Adèle Exarchopoulos, you see how many dimensions human nature can have. We're not just good or bad; sometimes we're repulsive, sometimes devoted, sometimes naive, sometimes foolish, sometimes completely indifferent, and other times... different. One person can do it all. Abdellatif Kechiche convinces me, especially after Black Venus, that the audience can tolerate reality and it doesn't have to be exaggerated; sometimes it's enough to simply let the camera watch. Still, I can't help but feel the length is excessively long. (2014-01-27)

From the first more intimate dialogue, physically intense spectacle, three hours in Adele's skin is surprisingly little. Or at least it would be, if the script didn't sometimes play a slightly repetitive melody. The hotly debated and open love scenes could really use some editing. Not that the first liberating one didn't have its place in the film, but the others no longer offer any surprises and, in one case, even slow things down. It's a pity, especially since the situations are so believable and inspired by life, when a person has a smile from ear to ear under all circumstances, because no matter what happens, they are simply happy. On the other hand, I won't get over the moments when you have a heavy feeling in your stomach together with the main protagonist because nothing is okay for a long time. Abdellatif Kechiche is obviously a peculiar patron, but for allowing me to live Adele's life, I must thank him without hesitation. It's even more disappointing that she grinds to a halt at the very end and in a crucial moment appears almost helpless. And I don't want to remember the sincere, vibrant Adele as helpless. (2015-07-21)