A LONG FILM WITH LOTS OF SEX

 'Blue is the Warmest Colour'. Starring Adele Exarchopolous and Lea Seydous. Directed and written by Abdellatif Kechiche. In French with English sub-titles.


   Why is blue the warmest colour? Because when Emma played by Lea Seydous first sees the younger Adele, played by Adele Exarchopoulos, Emma has dyed her hair blue. While at the film's end, Adele goes to Emma's art show wearing a blue dress. Blue turns on both women, or at least one of them. Got it?
     In between these times and spread out over four or five years, the older Emma and the younger Adele fall in love, make love and then fall out of love.
     "I want something concrete," Adele tells Emma's parents as all four eat a luxurious meal of oysters. Emma's parents are far richer than Adele's. At Adele's home, her parents usually serve up spaghetti at meal time. Emma's parents don't mind that their daughter's going to be a visual artist. Adele's folks want Adele to have a steady job like teaching which Adele takes up. Adele isn't a French intellectual; Emma is.
     The heart of 'Blue Is The Warmest Colour' are two long scenes, stretching out over 30 minutes where Adele and Emma make love. At film's end, Adele still hungers for Emma who's moved on to another woman. Adele is like many people who get obsessed with their first love.
      "Are you an athlete?" a young French woman once asked a visiting American who said she didn't smoke. "In our country only athletes don't smoke." Emma and Adele smoke all the time and they're not athletes. Yet in the lovemaking scenes they perform with athletic skill.
    Yet there's another side to this film which is interesting. The film also shows us life in the  small French city of Lille. We see political demos, music festivals, intellectual get togethers, art shows and gay clubs. The film  also spends some time in Adele's classrooms, where she teaches the very young.
    These things don't usually pop up in most North American films. So director Abdellatif Kechiche, a Franco-Tunisian,  has written and directed an interesting flick. Yet this film clocks in at 179 minutes and is way too long. At times it can bore you to tears. Yet then again, there are those love scenes..