La vie d'Adèle (2013) Reviews

• An Honest and Emotionally Devastating Film about Life, Love and Sexuality

  Loving_Silence2013-09-24

  I just want to start off by saying this is an amazing film about young love that is actually honest with its audience. There are countless of films about people falling in love, but when you see "Blue is the Warmest Colour". You realize just how rare films are that make a sincere attempt to catch what it really is like to fall for someone, without sentimentality, forced cuteness or cheap emotional manipulation. This is the rare love story that has real emotional truth about it. The fact that it is about two women who fall for each other is almost secondary to the way the film catches the universality of what it is like to fall in love and maintain the relationship. "Blue is the Warmest Colour is a naturalistic and touching film, whether you're gay, straight, bisexual, or whatever orientation. This is a film that can give you relationship advice and life guidance no matter what your orientation may be. It isn't an indulgent film bringing only a unique gay relationship to light and nothing more, and it isn't an ode to "coming out" and stockpiled clichés of "being different." It shows how an interaction with a person can have a truly provocative impact on you as a person. The struggles between the two lovers is depicted in breathtaking detail. The director masterfully captures all of the turmoil and hardship going on between Adele's and Emma's relationship. The movie's long running time does not effect the film at all because you are so immersed into their characters. The sexual realization of Adele is perfectly shown in the movie. She is confused and doesn't know what she wants, it is a typical teenage problem. This movie is ultimately about Adele and her struggles to find her true self. The transformation that she experiences is utterly engrossing to watch. The film's nearly three hour running time is devoted to showing the growth of her character and it is absolutely amazing to watch it unfold right in front of your eyes.The intimate scene's between Adele and Emma are nothing short of miraculous in their depth and their honesty. The conversations are heartfelt, and the pain is evident and shared. It's realism of the world we live in is honest and raw. The movie owes so much of it's emotional power to its two fantastic actresses. They really bring it their all in this. I've never had doubts of these two performances, the characters felt like real people and you felt so much for their relationship. Their emotional hardships feel completely real. The character's flaws and insecurities feel so authentic because you actually believe them as real human beings. We never lose sight of their chemistry and devotion to one another, even in the most difficult of times. The two of them are like fireworks, waiting to explode out. I cannot recommend this film enough to those of you out there who are interested in seeing this. This is one of the wisest and least condescending films I've seen this year. I congratulate the director, Abdellatif Kechiche and the two actresses, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux for an emotional and spiritual journey that had me compelled to the screen for 179 glorious minutes.

  More

• One of the best films I have ever seen. Go immediately.

  smdilke2013-11-10

  I saw this film as a preview, at 11am on a Sunday morning, whilst nursing a horrible cold and it was the best decision I have made in a long time. The film offers several basic and well used premises: the Eliza Doolittle/Henry Higgins: why won't you let me educate you thing, a dichotomy between big city and small city ideas and ideals and the well trotted out first love idea. However, the way this film is presented is entirely original. Kechiche sets it in Lille, a town in Northern France, full of provincial living and entirely captures how it is in general in this town - when the characters walk around you feel that he understands what he is talking about. The film is about desire, desire to eat, desire to sleep with someone, desire to dance and it is portrayed within a first relationship between two women. The two women are fantastic and the plot has amusing little french jokes interspersed between the very emotionally demanding relationship that has you gasping at points. However the story is largely about one of them, Adele - and you feel over the three hours, that you get to know her, what she is about, what she finds attractive, what she wants (or what she thinks she wants). The actress playing her has a wonderfully expressive face and she needs it for the amount that happens. When she cries, when she eats, when she sleeps you believe her. Much has been said about the sex scenes, which are very graphic, however these are entirely relevant to the plot and the furore seems to be about the actors criticising the director for pushing them too far, however, without this pushing this film wouldn't be nearly as good. When it finished, and I realised that it had been three hours I couldn't believe it. It was a revelation.

  More

• One of the most emotionally intense, powerful movies of the year

  nootch232013-12-27

  I saw this film on the last night it was playing at my local theater and I jumped on the opportunity. Once it was over I realized how smart of a decision it was. I read a review of the film that said something along the lines of, "the trouble with this film being 3 hours is that you want to watch it for several more." I couldn't agree more with that statement. The story, along with its characters, moves the film along to the point where it didn't feel like 3 hours. This film was probably the most emotionally intense and powerful movie I've seen in a very long time. You believed everything you were seeing and it forced you to feel it along with the characters. As much that has been written about this film, the acting can not be overstated. These two actresses are a revelation in this movie. It seems that whenever the topic of homosexuality is covered by a film it usually contains some sort of hate crime or bias against homosexuality somewhere in the story that the film's characters have to face and overcome. What's refreshing about this film is that there is a dash of that but its in the beginning of the film and never becomes the focus of the conflict with the characters. The film acknowledges that bias is there but brushes it aside to say that there is something bigger and more important at play with the characters. Really nice to see that in a film. This movie ranks as one of the best films I've seen this year and am so happy I had a chance to see it.

  More

• An extraordinary Love story, applicable to all of us !!

  kriddirk2013-11-08

  I waited some days to review this title after seeing this film. This movie triggered me thinking about love and life and I waited to give it my neutral review. I am watching movies since the latest 30 years and I have to say ; This movie is special !! After 30 years of seeing all kind of movies I have narrowed my scope of movies to see. They have to be special, show me something different, give me ideas to think about or to evaluate in my own life. So, movies like World war Z is not directly my style. This movie although is one of the best love stories I have seen. No unnecessary emotional or cuteness parts, each part of the story is real and genius. It is the soft moments of a love story, the hard moments bringing to the screen. The movie is made in away you are in the skin of Adele and Emma ( can't remember the actress names ). They take you with them in their love story, their feelings. That is also the reason that the 3 hours of the movie is not too long at all. I was surprised it took 3 hours when the film ended. The movie handles the passion between them, a passion that many of us forget over the years in a relation. That passion is also expressed in about 3 sex scenes, 3 scenes which are quiet honest and direct. Some people will find these scenes too long ( one of them could take 10 minutes ), but I find it necessary to establish your follow up of the passion they have between each other, so that when things goes worse you also are one with the situation. This movie, natural, honest about love, life and sexuality could be attended by children of 12 and more, if they are explained things of life ( they also can see all kind of war movies … ). Many will say "Oh, lesbian movie, what the hell you are". This is a movie for all of us, independent of your orientation being gay, hetero, bisexual, … It is a Love story. Each feeling, being angry / disappointment / sad / etc …, can be seen on the faces of Adele and Emma and by this I have to say that these actresses are just superb, in fact I don't know another word to say extraordinary acting. It has certainly been very difficult for them to make this film. The director : Bravo to him. There are some scenes which are just fantastic : The first meeting between them, the encounter between them in the lesbian bar in which Adele is in a strange world as adolescent. The tree scene, where they actually get in love both of them. The level of a good love story with all it's feelings and situations has been raised to a higher one. Who can ever do this better. And the last remark. The film treats the love story, it's personal problems, the passion, but does not handle the problems which can have their family or friends, not in detail. And now, go and watch it !

  More

• Extraordinary

  thomas-e-louise2013-10-15

  I have never seen a film about a face until Blue. Almost every emotion the face can show is expressed by the leading actress: longing, satisfaction, shame, allure, hunger, anger, grief, boredom, suspicion. I was worried after the opening scenes that the film was one of stark realism despite its whimsical title. However, after a short time, it took on its poetical style, and in the street, just before Adele sees Emma, we hear the first sound of music. From then on the film is an exercise in cinematic eloquence. In one particular scene, Adele wanders into a lesbian club still under the impression of the blue-haired woman she had seen days or weeks before. The club is small and packed and she can't seem to find her bearings. Adele makes it to the back of the club which resembles a dark abyss. She has the look of someone at once desperately searching and giving up the search. Then, behind her, the top of Emma's head appears from somewhere out of the shadows as a looming orb of dark blue. You don't see where Emma comes from; you don't see her face or body, just a color. When Emma sits down at the bar with Adele their first exchange is instantly dynamic and absorbing. If you compare this conversation with the talk Adele engages in with her classmates at the beginning , it's easy to admit that Adele is far more mature, thoughtful, and intellectually eager than her peers. To appreciate the subtleties of this scene we have to recall one of the first moments in the film when Adele's teacher asked her class if love at first sight feels like the gaining of something or the losing of something. Is it possible that the director is also trying to answer this question? The sex scenes will doubtlessly make some uncomfortable; such authenticity is something rarely seen on screen, but they are neither gratuitous nor pornographic. There's nothing more gratuitous than the old lie that's been told throughout cinematic history of woman as a passive sexual being, and the women in this film are anything but passive. Contrary to other reviews, no single sex scene in Blue is 10 minutes long. There are three sex scenes and together they add up to 10 minutes, but the scene everyone is talking about is at most five minutes, unless the film they showed at Cannes if different from the one making the film festival circuit.

  More