The big winner at Cannes this past spring was
Blue Is The Warmest Color, Abdellatif Kechiche's screen adaptation of the graphic novel
Blue Angel. A coming-of-ager that got quite a bit of initial attention for its graphic sex scenes between its two leading ladies, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos, it's also a seemingly very good flick. Our own Ryland Aldrich had this to say
from Cannes:
There is a stereotype that used to exist in America that European (and
especially French) films were all full of gratuitous sex. Back before
the internet, VHS tapes, and days of easy access pornography, young boys
would sneak into art house cinemas to get a look at those lovely bare
bodies from across the Atlantic. Whether any of this is accurate, the
stereotype made its cultural impact and somehow extremely graphic sex
scenes in French films are greeted with slightly less shock by the
typically more puritanical American public. Well, dust off those old
theater blueprints, boys and girls, Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is The Warmest Color (aka La Vie D'Adele)
is one of the most shockingly explicit features to cross the pond in
quite some time. Oh, and it's also one of the best films of the year.
For the moment let's set aside the facts about its sexual content and just consider the U.S. domestic trailer, which has premiered today ahead of Sundance Selects releasing the film stateside starting October 25. There's not one bit of dialog in the whole thing, which isn't too surprising when it comes to marketing foreign language films these days, but that seems to work in the film's favor, creating a magical and melancholy mood throughout as we get your basic pull quotes from press (and Cannes Jury head Steven Spielberg). If you're already anxious to see the film (like me) than you probably don't even need to watch this trailer, but it won't hurt either.