1093. La Vie d'Adele

La Vie d'Adele
Blue is the Warmest Color
2013
Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche

I hope everybody is staying healthy and sane. Please continue to share how you are doing in the comments section. I encourage everybody to follow Dumbledore's advice and find light even in the darkest of times, which for many of us (most of us?) means watching a movie about French lesbians.

Adele is a fifteen year old high school student on the cusp of discovering her sexuality. She finds herself more attracted to a mysterious blue-haired stranger she passes in the street one day than the boy who is actively pursuing her by reading the books she recommends (follow your heart Adele, but that guy was special!). The film follows their relationship as it develops; up close and personal as a matter of fact.

This is a movie that I feel like complements Call Me By Your Name well, although I liked CMBYN better. I know the prolonged lesbian sex scenes were probably very enjoyable for most people, but I questioned their purpose. I like some things left to the imagination and I think in most cases less is more. In fact, CMBYN had considerably less, and I remember it being more powerful. The characters seem more intimate if they are sharing something the audience isn't privy to.

It's a movie that takes itself very seriously, with the director apparently giving Stanley Kubrick a loving homage on set by being total dick to everybody. I guess genius is often tangled up in insanity, but I am not sure if having a crazed perfectionist at the helm necessarily makes a movie a masterpiece.

I'm being pretty harsh, which I will once again ascribe to my quarantine crankies. A fine romance, with many, many kisses.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adele appears in every scene.

Over 800 hours of footage was shot.