Blue Is The Warmest Color

 Just finished watching 'Blue is the warmest color', and found myself having a lot of thoughts about the movie, so I thought I would write one of these again.  

I initially picked the movie out because I've been trying to study French, and when I was looking for popular French movies this topped off the lists I was looking at.  So I thought I'd give it a try.  

Coming into the movie, I knew that it was made in 2013, and that it centered around a lesbian romance.  The latter part made it a controversial movie, according to some of the things I was reading randomly from Google.  I thought to myself, well maybe because it's from 2013?  I couldn't really imagine anyone calling a movie about love that's not heterosexual 'controversial' in 2021, so that was my interpretation.  And that was all I really knew about it.  

And because my understanding of this movie beforehand was really limited as shown above, I was almost completely expecting a sort of movie that's like, 'girls love other girls despite society going against them' type story.  I was ready for some sort of really trite storyline that centers around that.  And because I almost expected that to happen, I think I was watching out really carefully for signs of the expected to come early on.  

And for the most part, the movie did follow that in I'd say the first half of the movie.  You're introduced to this high school girl Adele who starts the movie getting asked out by another high school boy who you can tell she's not really into.  Enter cool dyke chick who completely sweeps Adele off her feet when she's headed towards her lunch date with the boy, and they happen to cross paths.  Adele has some sort of lousy make-out sesh at the movies with the boy, and then goes home to masturbate thinking about cool dyke chick.  It feels weird calling her cool dyke chick lol, so I'm just going to call her Emma even though you find out her name later.  So anyways, Adele eventually breaks up with the boy, and during a night out with friends, follows Emma to a lesbian bar and gets to know her.  They start hanging out, but people at school find Adele hanging out with this older girl that really looks like a lesbian, start calling her lesbian, there's tension at school, oh boy.  

So that's kind of what happens in the first like third of the movie.  And the reason why I wanted to go through just those details was because, all this time it was really spelling an already written recipe for me.  As I was saying before, I really was expecting a movie that portrayed brave lesbian love in an era of intolerance.  And so really during this time because I was so convinced this was what the movie was about, I was constantly thinking, what is pushing against Adele's young, innocent lesbian love?  Is it school?  Is it her parents?  Is it society?  What is this movie trying to blame?  

But to my luck, this movie wasn't trying to blame anyone, because it wasn't really a movie portraying some sort of forbidden lesbian love.  You see signs of intolerance here and there, be it the kids making fun of Adele at school/ condemning her for being gay, and also her parents who assumed Emma had a boyfriend who would be the strong man of the house who would put bread on the table while Emma dabbled in her art.  It wasn't like those signs weren't there, but I think the thing was that Adele wasn't really portrayed as a person who would falter against those pressures.  In fact, if you see the scene where Emma is eating dinner at Adele's family's place and there's all that 'Emma with the breadwinning boyfriend' talk I just mentioned, right after that scene is them having sex in Adele's room, laughing about them lying to Adele's parents that Emma is just helping Adele out with her philosophy studies at school.  That, along with a few other scenes (mostly scenes that showed that the gay scene was generally vibrant and well respected), made me realize that Adele probably didn't really give a shit about those pressures.  

So if it wasn't that, then what was this movie really about?  

What stood out to me the most was how complicated Adele was painted.  Here's this girl, who at face value is very staunch, and just very confident in a way that I can only describe as French.  (I don't really know if this is a French thing, but it's just my idea of this feeling of general French nonchalance.)  None of the actions she takes feels like she's being swindled by anything.  Which makes these small moments of doubt that flicker in her eyes a lot more interesting to look into.  

The flickers I'm thinking of mostly come from scenes where she's dancing.  There are a lot of dance scenes in this movie, and I think it's a particularly unique motif to focus on.  Dancing in parades/marches, first for worker's rights, then for LGBTQ rights, the camera takes time to capture these flickers of time where Adele really looks like she doesn't really know what's going on, which makes it particularly interesting.  Especially because these scenes come at times when it feels like she's figured something out, like maybe she doesn't really like that guy, or she's met Emma and is really enjoying time with her.  I suppose dance is a symbol of freedom of expression, and so when Adele seems lost in these moments, it signifies something.  

Speaking of freedom of expression, it's interesting because that's something Emma really emphasized.  And I think to a certain extent that includes Emma's decision to get with the pregnant lady from her art party.  When it was so obvious that Emma was probably cheating on Adele with said pregnant lady, it's kind of sad that Adele's the one who ends up being labeled the cheating one after her affair with the other school teacher, which again happened from the act of dancing.  While Emma finds success with her art and love with a new partner through her 'freedom of expression', Adele is led to even more confusion as to what she really wants, and eventually loses the woman she wanted the most.  

And I think this is what makes the movie powerful.  It's not a cautionary tale against full expression, more than it is a probably more accurate portrayal of what it means to have choice, to dance with your desires.  For a girl who seemed so sturdy in the beginning and incredibly poised even during moments of great uncertainty, by the end Adele really seems like a miserable shell of herself.  It's a story that doesn't try to paint a perfect picture of what it truly means to live freely, but rather tries to encompass the question of what it even means to do so.  The uncertainty of finding the right people at the right moment.  The possibility that love you feel so truly doesn't spell destiny.  Sexual preference is then really only one part of the equation.  

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Well, that was my serious analysis of the movie.  Now for some of the shittier takes that no one gives a shit about.  

So I went in to the movie really just wanting a taste of France.  So when I hear English music at the birthday party, and then Spanish music at the open dance night, I was like ugh.  I guess there was something about French that made me think maybe there's something that feels unique.  And while there definitely is, it also seems to be a culture that likes looking up to the US.  It just feels weird trying to learn a language, and then when I try to consume the culture, it tries portraying mine.  Lol.  Which is kind of why I have been leaning towards learning Russian, because I know the overlap between US and Russian culture's probably slimmer due to the beef going on for decades.  And I just think Russian, or at least Eastern European, humor is just something I'd enjoy more.  So yeah.  

Also made me think smoking is cool again.  The feeling of just having all my clothes smell the same, is annoying but oddly comforting too.  

What else, well there was a lot of sex in the movie.  Like a lot a lot.  Like I'd say a good 30 minutes.  Could've totally skipped it.  Kind of interesting that that was how the movie shaped up to be.  Maybe because if there was a US equivalent to this movie, there probably wouldn't be any of those.  

Yeah, I kept finding myself comparing US culture to what I saw here.  Thinking about how if this movie was shot in LA, they'd probably choose some female lead that seems more vulnerable than the Adele we had.  And then Emma would be the girl teaching Adele everything.  But I thought not having that was what made this movie so special.  How strong-willed Adele is portrayed, really ties into showing how messy relationships can be, how love can be.  

The cafe scene absolutely crushed me.  Reminded me of a lot of things.  Reminded me of the Lolita scene where Dolores tells the guy she can't hang with him anymore, with a smile on her face, leaving him devastated.  Reminded me of some personal stuff too.  The wry feeling of things just not working out.  Really knocked it out of the park for me.  

The scene where Adele's eating dinner with her parents after she made out with a random girl on the stairs, where she reclines in her chair and they're shooting her at an angle from above her.  That shot still stands out to me.  I wonder why they decided to do that.  It does portray some feeling of satisfaction though.  So it was a great shot.  

Also realized that I've gotta catch up on French slang.  They don't pronounce the oui's as uwee, it's like uweh.  Among other things as well.  

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Well I think that's pretty much it, a word dump of thoughts from this really special movie.  It was a great movie.  It gives me Call Me By Your Name vibes for obvious reasons, although this movie is definitely special in it's own way for the reasons I explained.  Would def recommend.  As for me, I can't wait to find another movie like this if any of the other French actresses are like Adele.