Blue is the Warmest Color (2013) - Abdellatif Kechiche

Abdel Kechiche's Blue is the Warmest Color is a powerful and emotionally exhausting story of self discovery that captures the full range of human emotions.  The story centers around Adele, a 15-year-old- girl who is reaching adulthood and dreams of experiencing her first lovers embrace.  A handsome male classmate falls hard for Adele, but Adele's passion in their relationship is timid at best.  When Adele meets Emma, an older art student, their is an instant passion between them which sets off an intense love story that spans nearly a decade.  At its core, Blue is the Warmest Color is a film about equality and how everyone is more similar than we tend to believe.  From society's differentiation between heterosexual and homosexual love, to the working class vs. the intellectual class, Blue is the Warmest Color breaks down these perceived differences exposing how similar all of humanity truly is.  Adele is the viewers vessel, as we experience lust, love, loneliness, and grief, with the film capturing the beauty and heartbreak that exists in humanity.  Abdel Kechiche does a remarkable job from a direction standpoint, using great use of color and compositions to capture this emotionally exhausting journey.  This film can be very explicit at times but I never thought the two females were objectified in any way, merely show in a natural light as any human being seeking sexual pleasure.  I found Kechiche's use of extreme closeups to be particularly effective, attempting to capture the emotion exuding from the character's bodies and souls.  This is an epic film, running a little over 3 hours in length but it's a story that never seems to drag with three distinct segments.  The first hour is really about Adele's understanding of her emotions, capturing how societies expectations can inhibit a young person's growth in understanding themselves.  The second segment is very much about the passionate love between Adele and Emma as they grow together.  This is the segment that really comments on the class structure of society as Adele and Emma come from very different upbringings.  The final segment is very much about regret, grief, and hope.  Of course these segments are not laid out for the viewer, but the trajectory of the story spans through these emotions beautifully.   I really hope Adèle Exarchopoulos has a long and fruitful career because her performance in this film absolutely blew me away.  Not since Casey Affleck's performance in The Assassination of Jesse James have I been so surprised and impressed, with Adele Exarchopoulous creating a character that is incredibly empathetic and engrossing.  Abdel Kechiche's Blue is the Warmest Color is an astonishingly acted character study that truly captures part of the human condition in a way few films have.
9/10

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