‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ in Cinema’s Sexual Conversation
A feisty darling of French Cinema at the moment, “Blue is the Warmest Color” is stirring several pockets of buzz. From winning the 2013 Palme D’Or at Cannes, to its debated depiction of lesbian intercourse, and also public exchanges between director Abdellatif Kechiche and star, LÃ?©a Seydoux about classism in French Society.
Based on Julie Maroh’s graphic novel, “Blue Angel” about the budding sexual exploration of a teenage girl with a slightly older lesbian artist. The romantic entanglement allows the lead roles vigorous exhibitions of emotion, at times wistful and others fiery. This is evident in the ever-emerging talents of LÃ?©a Seydoux and the breakthrough performance from AdÃ?¨le Exarchopoulos.
The film boasts the first Lesbian-themed film to win the Palme D’Or at Cannes, which arose the inevitable debate over its depiction of Sapphic intercourse. The intimate scenes between Seydoux and Exarchopoulos are lengthy workouts of a frank nature. The film consists of pensive moments in innocent long-takes, especially of Exarchopoulos’ sensory experience. Several exaggerated close-ups of her eating carry an emphasis on her insatiable devouring of instinctual pleasures.
This visual motif extends to the bedroom, where in place of cinematically exploring sexual wonderment, we get long takes of the act’s candid mechanics. An effort of passion exists in the actors’ performances, but Kechiche does not sacrifice his consistent frankness for the allure of cinematic depiction. The argument has been posited several times over by critics, that their intimate moments don’t service an honest depiction of lesbian intercourse. Then again, some have said it is the realist lesbian sex ever seen.
This quibbling over technicalities reside within the broader question of is the sex essential to the narrative. Would “Blue is the Warmest Color” still hold its poignancy without these scenes between Seydoux and Exarchopoulos? Is it a male-gaze posing as sensual honesty? Or are the sexual acts inseparable from the narrative and character journey? The film pushes boundaries of sex on screen, but mostly in just its long-takes. Something could be said of its rather candid, graphic nature, but not as a game-changing moment.
Any controversy over the matter reflects an inexperience in the finer points of sexual cinema. Several commentators have made a point to list such game changing films in depicting sex on screen. Here are a few of note in my own cinematic experience, but surely I’m missing some deeper cuts from the lexicon.
There are the films that have unleashed the darker side of sexual nature, to even depicting acts of pure depravity. There is Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “SalÃ?²,” Gaspar NoÃ?©’s “IrrÃ?©versible,” David Cronenberg’s “Crash” and “A History of Violence,” as well as Steve McQueen’s “Shame.” Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut,” certainly lends itself to darker explorations of sex at the art house. In the darker depictions of lesbian sex, there are films like Darren Arnofsky’s “Black Swan” and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive.”
In the aforementioned, sex isn’t just an integral narrative thread, but at times a character of sorts in itself. There are then the developments of characters that would not be the same without depiction of their sexual nature on screen. The characters of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights,” Steven Shainberg’s “Secretary” and Alfonso CuarÃ?³n’s “Y Tu MamÃ?¡ TambiÃ?©n.”
Such films give exemplary meaning to showing vs. telling in building characterization through sex. One such landmark of cinema is Nicolas Roeg’s visceral “Don’t Look Now.” Before Donald Sutherland was tormenting Katniss as President Snow in “The Hunger Games,” he was psychologically tormented in this film. The famous sex scene intercuts a contrast between a couple’s love-making with their morning ritual – coldness contrasted with passion that defined a troubled marriage.
There are also the entire canon of films from directors such as Pedro AlmodÃ?³var and Catherine Breillat. The joyous wonders of Chinese cinema such as Zhang Yimou’s “Ju Dou,” which among some films mentioned here are still banned in certain countries.
Of special mention in meaningful homosexual intercourse on screen is Wong Kar Wai’s “Happy Together.” Like “Blue is the Warmest Color” certainly attempts to achieve, the sex scenes in “Happy Together” are an intimate dialogue between characters.
Sexual depictions are incredibly difficult territory on screen, especially without the use of gratuitousness, comedy or fanciful cinematic devices. That difficulty shows its seams in the otherwise thoughtful pattern created around the characters AdÃ?¨le and Emma in “Blue is the Warmest Color.”
Through the relationship of these young women, the film has something to say about more than just sex. While true that I haven’t contributed to that discussion with my focus here, it is sad that for some it won’t transcend the argument of just sexual accuracy.
