Tag Archives: Blue Angel

Blue is the warmest color (2013).

Blue is the warmest color review.

My ratings – 4.6/5

The prime objective to make a film is to entertain the audience but in the process of doing so most of the films/filmmakers loose their sincerity. They desperately attempt to be the viewer’s wish list, too eager to please them and lure them to the cinema halls.

blue-is-the-warmest-color-poster1But fortunately a few films are still made just for the sake of creating good cinema. They have a genuine quality in them, a certain truthfulness that invariably touches the audience – Blue is the warmest color is one such rare gem.

Loosely based on Julie Maroh’s 2010 graphic novel, Blue Angel, the film won the Palme d’Or, the highest honor awarded at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Generally the award is given only to the director of the film but in 2013 (for the first time ever in the history of Cannes Film Festival) as decided by the jury and it’s president Steven Spielberg, the award was given both to the director (Abdellatif Kechiche) as well as to the two lead actresses (Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos).

blue-is-the-warmest-color-poster3This surely gives you a hint regarding the quality of performance you are to witness in this film – watching actors who don’t seem to be acting is always a special treat.

A three-hour package of emotions, a romantic love story taken to a different height with superlative storytelling, awesome direction and absolute brilliant performances.

It’s all about a young girl Adèle, a confused teenager searching for love and eventually ends up exploring her sexuality. The majority of the film deals with Adèle’s relationship with Emma, an erotic lesbian courtship – romantic, intense, sensual and of course stung by infidelity and jealousy.

blue-is-the-warmest-color-poster2Very ‘French’ when it comes to the sexual content; Blue is the warmest color has an overdose of lesbian lovemaking sequences but in the end it all balances out perfectly for the film.

The director Abdellatif Kechiche is not only successful in showing the complexity of finding one’s sexual identity but also he effectively points out the difference in acceptance of homosexuality in different social classes.

For instance Emma’s family who belongs to a higher social status than Adèle’s, freely accepts their same-sex relationship. But on the other hand Emma has to lie to Adèle’s parents by saying that she has a boyfriend just to make their friendship acceptable for the elderly middle class couple.

blue-is-the-warmest-color-posterAs the name suggests the color ‘blue’ is used extensively in the film, often too visually on the face as the blue color of Emma’s hair in the entire first half of the film. May be Emma’s blue hair represented their intensity of love for each other in a symbolic way – as in the second half Emma’s hair color fades out along with their passionate relationship.

According to some people Blue is the warmest color is all about a struggle to find ones sexuality, some say it’s a take on homosexual relations but for me the film is primarily about love. It’s simply about the quest of finding true love and then also going through the pain of loosing it.

Overall a rare so-called perfect film. A must watch.