LFF: Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013) Dir. Abdellatif Kechiche

Tunisian-French director, Abdellatif Kechiche’s film is deeply moving - Fearlessly sexy & utterly original. This coming of age film about a young lesbian couples relationship, excites all the senses.

Adele (played by Adele Exarchopoulos) is a seemingly shy fifteen year old, after a brief affair with a boy at school she begins to discover her sexuality and breaks it off with the devastated young boy. Bewildered by her feelings, whilst the cosmic sounds of a street steel band can be heard, Adele crosses paths with blue-haired, Emma (played by Lea Seydoux). There is an instant connection as both girls look back at each other lingering onto that bit of magic. The steel bands are heard again, during the last sequence of the film, suggesting something good on the horizon for Adele or perhaps it’s a reminder of their initial meet. Either way it’s a beautiful sentiment. Adele is an aspiring teacher and Emma an artist – The two girls meet again at a gay bar and hit it off immediately.

The filming is intimate in style; Intense close ups of characters faces allows the audience right into the heart of the story. This is about Adele and Emma. Nothing else. The sex scenes are extremely courageous and surprisingly, despite the film being directed by a man, it lacks any shred of maneuvering the gaze to a male focused angle.

The obvious beauty of this film lays in the fact there are many art-house elements to it. There is a continuous blue motif beginning with Emma’s hair colour leading to the art direction and costume. Nature plays a central character in the film hinting at a watchful spiritual- guardian surrounding the couple and their pivotal moments. The sun can be seen, shimmering out between their heads as they part from their first poignant kiss; the autumn leaves dancing around as Adele rests her head on their bench.

Film Still - Adele - Blue motif

A romanticised depiction of food is depicted; Constant close up’s of Adele candidly eating her spaghetti with much vigor. Emma’s family prefer oysters which reflects their open minded attitude to Emma’s sexuality compared to the couple having to pretend their merely friends during a visit to Adele’s, less hip parents. What does this preoccupation with food suggest? Sheer indulgence. Gratifying the senses without a crumb of shame or hesitation about it.

During the second half of the film, once Adele and Emma are living together, Adele appears to have become a silent muse to her upcoming artist girlfriend. She cooks spaghetti for all of their friends and her to-the-point worldly views become a form of commodity to Emma and her Satre reading, art loving friends.  Adele has become domesticated, the housewife concerned for the stagnant state of their relationship. Emma’s focus is on friends and speaking about her art. Time has caused the fire to dampen down between the two of them. By addressing this very common issue in relationships, the film is alluring to a wider audience than one may at first glance expected. 

This is not by no means, a film merely aimed at lesbians nor is it gratifying the male fascination and curiosity with lesbian sex. Blue Is The Warmest Colour is a 3-hour feature yet it does not feel as long as it should. It’s thoroughly mesmerizing and will leave you wanting more.

RARE FILM: Tiny Furniture (2010) Dir. Lena Dunham

Director, Star & Writer, Lena Dunham, is simply a genius and modern day heroine

With big wins at SXSW in 2010, this coming of age, heavily frank, partly autobiographical, indie feature is a charming, hidden gem. Film4 acquired this film in 2012 and it was only released in a handful of cinemas last year. The film grabbed the attention of the key bosses at HBO soon after it's showcase at SXSW, soon after, Dunham was granted a TV deal for her highly acclaimed, award winning series, Girls.

The plot: Recently graduated from college, Aura, returns to her mothers swish apartment, attempts to find a job, runs into old friends and manages to find herself in awkward situations with men. Starring Lena Dunham's real life mother and sister, Tiny Furniture is brutally candid and feels more like a Woody Allen film if he was a girl in his twenties.

Not catering to everyone's taste, Tiny Furniture struts around comically, dancing around with the woes of the white middle class. Post-college yet not quite prepared for the real world, Aura is doing a lot of reflecting. Her actions throughout the film reflects the current generation of twenty, something year old's; The loss of direction in one's career, the overriding sense of entitlement, the intensity of female friendships and the numbness towards sex and relationships. 

Hipster friends, Aura & Charlotte - Gallery sequence

Tiny Furniture is an extremely funny film because it lacks pretense. Aura's melodramatic interactions with her sister and mother to her conversations with hipster, extrovert friend, Charlotte (played by Girls star, Jemima Kirke) is both sincere and very similar to real life interactions with loved ones. It's quite difficult not to warm to the characters with lines such as;

                                                                                                                           

                                    Aura's friend: "..Good to see you too, you look so pretty!"

Aura: "Oh are you serious? I feel like this outfit just screams: I've been living in Ohio for three years, take me back to your gross apartment and have sex with me"

Dunham's refusal to get all dolled up for the camera is one of the strongest aspects to the film, the audience is seeing a completely new representation of a woman on screen. Not only is Dunham curvaceous, she has no hesitation revealing her body throughout the film, standing in her childish pajamas with just her underwear on, it appears she is not only a modern day feminist, she's also highlighting the difficulty of being in your twenties; Not quite ready for adulthood yet desperately trying to understand and mold into it. 

More on Dunham:

Born and raised in New York City to two artists (Carroll Dunham and Laurie Simmons) Dunham attended  Oberlin Liberal Arts College where she graduated in Creative Writing in 2008.

Having always had a passion for making short films, Lena Dunham nabbed best narrative feature at SWSX festival in 2010, her career skyrocketed since then.

NB: If you've fallen in love with Lena Dunham as much as I have, check out  'British Biscuits' - The Delusional Downtown Diva's below: 

AND

Click HERE for a great interview with her in GQ magazine.