metroactive.com metr oactive.com | sanjo sanjose.com ose.com | metr metrosiliconvalley.com osiliconvalley.coom | N NOVEMBER O V E M B E R 6-12, 6-12 2013
34
metroactive FILM
Pale Blue Eyes
FIRST F IRST BLISS BLISS Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos)) is swept off her feet by art student Emma E (L (Léa éa Seydoux) in ‘Blue Iss the W Warmest armest Color Color.’ r..’
Blue e Is the W Warmest armes a st Color transcends transc cends its sensat sensational tional reputatio reputation on wiith its portrait of o a first love with By RICHARD RICHAR D VO VON N BUS BUSACK ACK
A
N CE NICE NI E BI BIG G made-in-Fr made-in-France ance ccan of o worms: these are tthe sex s scenes in the justly-laureled jjustly y-laureled Palme Palme d’ d’Or Or winner Blu e Is the W a armest Blue Warmest Color Color.. Inste Instead ead of sticking a fork into said ca an and twirling it, I’d I’d can rrather ather voice e a hope.
P Perhaps erhaps it it’s ’s true that the ttwo wo w actr actresses resses e (Léa Seydoux (Léa Seeyd doux and a mar marvelous rveelous ne newcomer ew wcomer Adèle A dèle Exarchopoulos) d Exarcho opoulos) who inhaled each other th on ccamera, aameera,, wentt tto too o far ffar, r, and dh had d second sec ond thoughts. though hts. It It’s ’s true the author JJulie ulie Maroh, Mar oh,, whose graphic no novel oveel w was aas the source sour ce of this absorbing a study of some five seven woman’s life, fiv ve or se eveen yyears eears in a woman n’s lif fe, is currently curr ently rrenouncing eno ouncing the se sex ex sc scenes cenes e in this film as p porn. orrn. Ma Maybe ayybe the deft yyoung o oung dir director ector Ab Abdellatif delllatif K Kechiche eechiche rregrets eegrets
haavving shown to having too o much. P Perhaps, erhaps, th hen,, all of them,, individually and then, se eparatelyy, will ccatch aatch up with the ar separately, artt they th heey ccollaborated ollaborated on her here. e. Give Givve them ma ffew ew yyears. eears. A dèl (Exar dèle d (E chop h oulos) l ) is i a nor thern the Adèle (Exarchopoulos) northern French Fr rench girl in her sec second ond yyear eear in high h sc chool in the suburbs of Lille school Lille,, close en nough to Belgium that lo cals go enough locals ni ightclubbing acr oss the b order. Thee nightclubbing across border. sh hots sometimes seem lik ke the Belgia an shots like Belgian D Dar denne br others’’ films, films, ffollowing ollowing o Dardenne brothers’ or rd dinary p eople as the ey trudge thr ou ugh ordinary people they through their th heir rroutines o outines in the Ohio of Eur Europe. ro ope. The mo ovvie has the fleshy, flesh hy, worldly movie st tyyle of Flemish ar t,, stripping glamou urr. style art, glamour. W dèle so close up that we see the Wee see A Adèle bl lemishes. Her fr ont teeth ar tttlee blemishes. front aree a lit little ra abbitty; the bab by fat still on her fac e, rabbity; baby face, ap pplying what lo oks lik ke pr e-chipped d applying looks like pre-chipped nail polish. heavy na ail p olish. She sleeps hea avvy as a ton of br ricks, lik ke a to ddler, mouth slack. Sh he’s bricks, like toddler, She’s sti ill half f--asleep on the bus to scho ol, still half-asleep school, brown w her hair in her br with own eeyes, yees, and an
Inc eanie on herr head. At At the Incaa yarn b beanie b eginning, she ’s still vvery eery much a kid; at beginning, she’s the end,, awake, awaak ke, gr own-u up and sadder r. grown-up sadder. A dèle eats with prais seworth hy Adèle praiseworthy gusto ’s gone to her h but tttle. gusto,, and it it’s buttt a lit little. Ther e’ll b ontrast eno ough later There’ll bee ccontrast enough when A dèle meets the woman who Adèle will b nlyy— —the mor bee her one and on only—the moree cultured (Seydoux) ccool, ool,, cultur ed Emma (S Seydoux) with her blue -dyed hair mmaa’s deb onair blue-dyed hair.. Em Emma’s debonair family knows their wh hite wines white wines,, and seafood with Adèle’s select seaf food to go wit th it. it A dèle’s family eats spaghet ttti Bo olognese out spaghetti Bolognese ot with a ccartoon pot of a ccooking ooking p artoon hedgeho t,, and the ey eat hedgehogg painted on it it, they the hell out of it. The Olmec-sized O Olmec -sized heads ar w champing aree in closeup closeup,, with ja aw ws and the satisfied sl lurping lips jaws slurping lips.. Adèle A dèle is a smar smartt stud student—taking dentt— —taking lit, wr estling with the mate erial (Marivaux wrestling material and The Princ ess off Cleves); Cleves); e signific antly Princess significantly after her class discusses the question of whether ther h a thing as “le theree is such ccoup oup de ffoudre, o oudre,” love lo ove att first sight. It’s It’s ma ayybe to o on the nose that A d dèle has maybe too Adèle shortly crossing her ccoup oup shor tly after class: c cr ossing the cr osswalk, a , she sees a blue -haired art art crosswalk, blue-haired student at the univ veersitty, grey-blue grey-blue eeyes, yes e, university, pale eeyebrows yeebrows and lashe es, a L evi’s jacket jacket lashes, Levi’s with the slee eves cut off ff. sleeves off.
little blue-haired This lit tttlee blue -haired girl obsesses Adèle way little t e hapless the ap ess A d dèlee tthee w dè ay tthee lit tttlee Brown. rred-haired ed-haired girl g obsessed Charlie Br own. Adèle tracks bar, A dèle track ks Emma to a lesbian bar r, and ough of the other makes rapid scan through mak kees a rap pid sc an thr ttypes yypes inside e: to o old,, too too intense o inside: too intense,, to too too scary, too too too high,, to cary, to o glam,, to o butch,, to o o sc bald—and finally Emma. The ey b overs e , in fr ont of us—it They become lovers, front eccome lo ecstatic, summeryy liaison, leads to an ecst atic, summer the ga ay prid de parade ty gay pride parade,, an anti-austerit anti-austerity mar ch,, and d kissing on Main Street. Street. Adèle Adèle d march, p oses and Emma E paints d dèle hides poses paints,, and A Adèle the affair fr rom her family y. A dèle d cr osses from family. Adèle crosses birthday. thdaay. She esho the thr old of the 18thh bir threshold do esn n’’t w aan nt to go fur ther in scho ol— doesn’t want further school— she ccan’t an n’t ’ seee doing 10 yyears ears e of ac ademia academia just to land d no job Emmaa’s ccareerism aareerism job.. Emma’s firms up an nd she starts sttar a ts to insist that her up,, and par tner A d dèle has unr ealized ambitions partner Adèle unrealized as a writer writer.. Se eyd douxx is a blueblo od in rreal eal lif fee; in Seydoux blueblood life; P aris, a major majjor film institute is named Paris, after her fam milyy, which w aas wrapp ed family, was wrapped up with thee cr reeation of the film studio creation P athé. She showed s a ccold old str eak in the Pathé. streak rrecent ecent Far rewell, e My Queen e, she w aas Farewell, Queen.. Ther There, was on the othe er end of the class stick,, as a other ccommoner ommonerr in lo ove with a bitch-goddess bitch-goddess love Marie -A Anto oinettte t . Ther re’s equalit ty Marie-Antoinette. There’s equality b ettween w Em mma and A d dèle when desir re between Emma Adèle desire strik kes e them m. But the proprietary proprietary w ay strikes them. way Emma slap ps A dèle’s ass isn n’’t a go od sign. slaps Adèle’s isn’t good The turn ning p oint is a rreception eception turning point in which A dèle do es the ccooking ooking Adèle does and the cle eaning and Emma gets the cleaning glor y. It ’s a b oho par ty with L ouise glory. It’s boho party Louise Br ooks in Pandora’s Pandora’’s Box flick ering Brooks flickering on a gar deen w all b ehind them, and garden wall behind Emma lur ed into an ar gument lured argument ab out “mo orbidity in Egon Schiele ’s about “morbidity Schiele’s o eu uvr v e”. It’s Itt’s lik —the oeuvre”. likee a draught draught—the first detect table ccold old br eeze of detectable breeze snobbishness. snobbishn ness. Emma toasts A Adèle, dèle, who we ’ve ccome ome to ccare are ffor o or and ffeel eel e we’ve ffor, or, as “m o ““myy muse.” muse.” How H cruell iis th that t? that? It ’s as if Emma Em mma wer alling A dèle a It’s weree ccalling Adèle w alking cconduit. o onduit. walking The hear rtbreak,, which w aaxes and heartbreak, waxes w aanes thr o ough the ne exxt hour, hourr, only wanes through next sometimes slacks our inter interest— estt— K eechiche is pr roceedural,, noting the Kechiche procedural, w ay a yyoung o oun ng woman works at her job way when she ’s aching inside or has a mind she’s else ewher w e. A slight rrecovery, eccover e y, a bigger elsewhere. rrelapse, elapse, and d we see the w ay pain clears way Adèle’s vision—it becomes A dèl ’s visio dèle i ion—it i b ecomes ultimately li l clear that Emma E is neither a worldb eating pai interr, nor the world’s world’s most beating painter, uncompromising person. unc omprom mising p erson. I’m rready eadyy ffor o or those worms now w. Her re, now. Here, the fac es tel ll us mor faces tell moree than the subtitles subtitles,, telling us off the k eenness e ouple’s keenness of this ccouple’s app etite ffor o orr each other and when it appetite