Remember being a teen. Remember the gossip amongst your friends about who had a thing for you, the awkward dates, the stolen kisses. Remember the crushes that came and went all too easily, and then recall the arrival of something else entirely: first love. Remember the overwhelming feeling of getting that close to someone, skin on skin and heart to heart, for the first time, in blissful ignorance of the fact that sometimes feelings and people change.
"Blue is the Warmest Color," winner of the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes film festival (and originally released as "La vie d'Adèle"), captures all that, but especially the intimacy of lovers; teenage Adèle, exploring her sexuality falls head over heels for the more mature and self-confident Emma. The physical side of their relationship is placed front and center, but the film itself is also an act of intimacy, as director Abdellatif Kechiche uses a vocabulary of tight close-ups that seek to erase the distance between spectator and actress.
Seventeen year old Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) is a bookish, reserved teen, almost unaware of her own budding sensuality. Her clique at school talk of nothing but boys, but a brief romance with a classmate leaves her rather underwhelmed. A playful kiss from a girl she knows, however, leaves her wondering whether she might bat for the other side. When she meets blue-haired, older, flirty, and decidedly dykey Emma (Léa Seydoux) in a bar, though, she feels the pull and follows it.