Blue ....

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR, 2013. I am still enthralled and enraptured after watching this last night. Its certainly my film of the year now. It seemed pre-ordained that Cate Blanchett would win the best actress Oscar after seeing BLUE JASMINE last summer, though my alliegiance later shifted to Dame Dench, but now Adele Exarchopoulos seems the actress of the year to me. Not since that other Adele – Isabelle Adjani as ADELE H - has a new actress stunned me so much. 

15 year old Adele feels like an average teenager, with school, friends, parents and boys taking up most of her time and thoughts. A desulatory relationship with an older boy does not satisfy her and that female schoolfriend who seemed to be coming on to her rejects her advances. Then a chance encounter with the blue-haired older Emma (Lea Seydoux) turns her world upside down, forcing her to question her desires and assert herself as a woman and as an adult. Jaw-droppingly frank in its sexual content, mesmerisingly beautiful and utterly compelling from start to finish, this is gripping engrossing cinema in its rawest, purest form whose almost three hours fly by, and is indeed one of the most celebrated and talked-about films of the year.

 
I can’t recall when the camera loved a performer as much as it does with Adele here, as directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. One trusts she will have a great career, and not be manipulated by directors, like say Maria Schneider. Kechiche’s vision is great too, as we watch and linger over Adele at meals with her parents, defending herself when her schoolfriends turn against her and call her lesbian, and at that first encounter with Emma in the gay bar, and how their relationship changes, as we leave the more mature Adele at the end. Whatever one’s gender or sexuality we all identify totally with that ideal first love here. It brought so much back to me, and its definitely one to revisit soon. 
The main shocking thing here is the amount of cigarette smoking these girls do - and that Brad Pitt comment seems wrong too, to these teenage girls Brad Pitt is their parents' age - they have their own teen idols like RPatz or Zac Efron or ....