Fifteen-year-old Adele (Exarchopoulos) has regular fifteen-year-old problems - negotiating tough school work and the advances of a boy, Samir (Kechiouche), who has taken a shine to her. But when she locks eyes with Emma (Seydoux), an artist with blue hair, she falls in love. Unable to get Emma out of her mind, when Adéle meets her again at a gay bar she tries to make an impression on the older woman. Over the next decade, Kachiche's Palme D’Or winning drama explores the ups and downs of their relationship...
There first thing that’s surprising is that the three-hour running time isn't felt. Or at least not as much as one would expect of director Abdel Kachiche who has glacial-slow Couscous on his CV. The time affords the romance room to breathe, to go to the park, lie back on the grass and gaze at the sky, which is what Adele and Emma do when they first kiss. The film can chill out and just be. Also, when the relationship hits a rocky patch and the director wants the audience to feel that separation, he has the time to do just that.
But the extended running time does one more thing: spending so long in their company, the sexual orientation of the couple dwindles away into the background. It becomes a non-issue, undercutting the 'three hour lesbian film' that everyone adds to the title when the film comes up in conversation. While there are scenes of inactivity and repetition where Kachiche is happy to leave the camera on the faces of his actors as they do nothing more than smile at each other, the only moments when time is really felt is during the sex scene. Something like seven to ten minutes long, the length lends itself from titillation to boredom and there is time for everything in between.
While Kachiche fails to make the ten years register - as the end credits roll Adéle still looks as young as she did at the beginning – and the third act doesn't have the same wallop the previous two and a half hours had, Blue Is The Warmest Colour is a touching romantic drama and boasts two terrific leading performances.
