#244 - Blue is the warmest colour (2013) analysis

***SPOILER ALERT***

Blue is the warmest colour (2103) 

4.5/5

This is a brilliant film. It shows the depths and facets of a relationship. It is both coming of age and sexual exploration. The film has been criticised for it’s 7 minute sex scenes by feminists and lesbians as gratuitous and pornographic. This doesn’t seem to have the same kind of reaction to the mainstream inclusion of heterosexual sex scenes. In fact in my opinion while mainstream media is constantly sexualising the female body, Hollywood has remained steadily conservative. The MPAA has kept sex scenes in cookie cutter watered down hetero-normative terms. Mostly scenes are shot only from the waist up with kissing only and body parts and sheets to carefully cover women’s breasts.

This is in stark contrast to the 70s and 80s films which were quite blasé about the inclusion of female breasts in films, including in romantic comedies e.g. ….despite their gratuitous use particularly in horror films. Somewhere in the 90s is became taboo and relegated to the ‘R’ or ‘NC17’ rating (US rating system). Television on the other hand has seen a resurgence of sexual content with the expansion of cable tv channels in particular HBO including shows like True Blood which is particularly sexualised in it’s “vampire pornography”. On the other hand mainstream television is subjugated to the “sexual references” rating and excludes important aspects of sexual relationships of characters using only implied references and cheap sexual jokes.

Would anyone have batted an eye to the 7 minute heterosexual sex scene? In European particularly French cinema lengthy and graphic sex scenes aren’t that uncommon, why is this any different? Why do second wave feminists continue to bow to the notion of the male gaze? What about the female gaze? Lesbians and lesbian sex has been neglected in mainstream cinema and made primarily for male consumers in pornography.

Why is Blue is the Warmest colour not valued for it’s portrayal of female sexual exploration, sexuality and sex acts. The scenes aren’t that gratuitous because I argue that they depict import character development. In a Hollywood film it would have featured kissing and caressing and then cut away only implying the sex scenes. How would this have exposed more people to the acceptance of lesbian sex practises which are often touted as “not real sex”. How is Adele’s first sexual experience with another woman not valid and legitimate to show on screen as a comparison to her sexual experience with men? Isn’t this depiction integral in showing her development and her lust and freedom and finally acceptance of her sexuality. Adele relationship has an intense sexual component and to cut it short and edit it for the sake of prudeness, it would cheapen the story and the character’s relationship.

Interestingly the film doesn’t show Adele’s affair with her fellow teacher who is male. This is a device to surprise the viewer of the twist in their relationship, but it also brings central light to the importance and intense connection of their same sex sexual intimacy.

The film has attracted controversy from the back and forth between the actresses and director in the media. Why does female nudity and sex necessarily imply exploitation? Isn’t this just one more example of how female orgasm and sexuality are repressed in our society. Female pleasure is still taboo yet conversely the female as object proliferates our entire society.