Blue Is The Warmest Color

Started by Drenk, August 16, 2013, 04:15:20 PM

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Drenk

Quote from: jenkins<3 on October 30, 2013, 02:41:53 PM
Quote from: matt35mm on October 30, 2013, 02:27:39 PMI guess I'll be in the minority of preferring the second-half to the first-half. I think I built up the first-half in my mind too much, and I'm looking forward to re-evaluating it upon a second viewing. The first sex scene did take me out of the movie. I thought the length was fine, but some of the angles invited laughter. The movie also has a hugely voyeuristic quality that is interesting and uncomfortable at the same time. I expected more "emotional" filmmaking, but instead it has an almost brutally rigorous voyeurism. The camera will watch Adele eat/sleep/cry/dance for real. It almost felt like an experiment, like she was a rat in a maze. The filmmaking doesn't really do anything to put you in her mind, except for a handful of moments (when she fantasizes about Emma for the first time while masturbating). All the camera does is watch her.

there's a minority/majority thing going on with 1st to 2nd half? not in that house

eat/sleep/cry/dance for real involves the senses. there are plenty of senses, it's true, and a thing to remember is those senses give her emotions. what kechiche doesn't do is substitute her emotions for filmmaking technique. he watches her feel, and i felt along with her. that was never a problem for me, even in the sex scenes because there were plenty of senses in those scenes too. like i said earlier, my focus isn't on seeing the sex. my focus is on seeing the people. and i like the passion and intimacy that was communicated through those scenes -- their passion, their intimacy

anytime you watch a person it's voyeurism? i'd have to hear more about voyeurism, i always thought it had to do with the viewer's pleasures being controlled by their personal wishes, something outside and selfish.

About voyeurism, Kechiche said it was all about distance. He doesn't want distance with Adèle in the film, and, indeed, I was her during three hours (her and myself at the time...) but I never felt like I was watching her through a keyhole. If you don't have this strong identification, I understand that it might feel like voyeurism, though. 

And I love the second part as much as the first. The movie wouldn't be as great without the second part, it's the part that showed how you evolve through time, through a relationship, how you become adult...
Ascension.

Drenk

Ascension.

ElPandaRoyal

Why would a film be banned anywhere?
Si

matt35mm

The movie has been growing in my mind and that's good. I retract saying that I liked the first half better than the second half--that was merely a reaction to the couple of posts here that said the first part is good and second part was less good.

My own experience of the movie is more complicated than feeling like I was Adele. There's been some criticism of the "male gaze" quality of the movie, and I find it difficult to deny. The camera has a leering quality to it; more than wanting to put us in her emotional headspace, it wants to watch. This, at least, is what I picked up on during the first viewing. I already want to watch it again and plan on doing so very soon.

I don't necessarily mean it as a criticism of the movie... but it is something that didn't allow me to just love it in a simple way. I think I will come to love this movie, because of how much there is to think about regarding what I perceived to be a leering quality of the style of the movie, and its genuine sensitivity and thoughtfulness. I don't think I'm over-reaching to say that it's a complicatedness that the movie is aware of, especially since there was the discussion at Emma's party about men trying to represent or capture the pleasure that women experience.

Anyway, I'll be re-watching it soon and will hopefully develop more thoughts about it. It's typical for me to have mixed feelings about an anticipated movie and then come to love it deeply upon re-watching it. The movies I love right away, I forget about within a year or two.

jenkins

the lovely part is it becomes a conversation at a table. glad to hear. i think you're glad too

Drenk

The movie wants us to watch, of course, to live every moment of the intimacy of Adèle. Voyeurism is still a strong word for this movie, I think, but not for his last movie, Vénus Noire (Black Venus, I guess), where we assist to the humiliation of a black woman with a big bottom; she dances in front of white rich people, and it's very hard to watch...I couldn't watch the whole movie.

I never see the "male gaze" in Adèle, though, even if Kechiche captures the beauty of their bodies, but he finds this beauty in simple and ordinary moments...

The male gaze, for me, is this representation of the woman : http://video.gq.com/watch/adele-exarchopoulos-can-make-anything-sound-sexy-even-duck-dynasty

About the man who talks about orgasms, it was obvious for me that he was saying bullshit. During the whole scene, we're out of the group, because Adèle is out. She's not included. She wanders around. They began to talk about Klimt, a PhD who said there was too many flowers...what a great thought...Then, the man talks about the mystery of the female organs, but we have seen, us, how real it is, how physic. It's nothing mystical. That's how I felt this scene.
Ascension.

max from fearless

I'm gonna hush my mouth about liking part one more than part two, I just want to see it again when it finally comes out here. But I agree with Matt, some of the angles during the sex scene just felt off and at odds with other shots in that scene and the way Kechiche and his team capture the relationship physically, elsewhere.

But I agree, Kechiche wants us to talk about how we see and view others and debate it. Looking back to 'Cous Cous' aka 'The Secret of the Grain'. SPOLIER ALERT. The scene where the girl has to dance and more-or-less give herself and her body to help save the Old Man, as everyone (mostly people of a different race/class) view her and take her in, in a voyeuristic way, is all about this to the point that I don't think Kechiche is just a champion of women, as Adele has been saying in various interviews, he's also a champion of minorities, the working class and the underclass, and living in Britain/Europe, I really appreciate that someone like Kechiche and say, Claire Denis do this in their movies...anyways I digress....

Pubrick

i saw it.

kechiche is an ass man.

main points i need to address in relation to things people have said so far:


  • even though the film eventually labels itself as two chapters there is no need to try to rate the "best" part. this kind of thing has irked me since full metal jacket, where something as meaningless as stating a preference for a "part" passes as valid critique.. it's valid opinion in that my own asshole can make such a simple statement, but it's not interesting. if you must waste time on which part is the best the least you can do is try to reflect on why there is even a distinction between parts. see, the difference in the parts is interesting, or rather the progress that takes place between them, not whether one worked or not. if any part didn't work, in the end you just didn't like the film.

  • matt35mm you are a cool dude but i have to disagree with you completely here: "The filmmaking doesn't really do anything to put you in her mind". i'm speechless.. you're making films man, this is not something i would expect a filmmaker to say.  i've hardly ever seen a film that has done MORE to put us in the mind of a character. basically, do you not consider acting as part of filmmaking? the example you gave as to a time we were given insight to her mind was literally being shown what she was thinking. the film develops its own language about what's going on in adele's mind, it's primary tool is adele's face.. did you at any point in the film look at her eyes? i know you always have liked to cut films down into departments. that may be what's happening here, you are looking at the image as if the camera is only looking from a distance, but it's not just looking, sometimes it's capturing. that's what this movie EXCELLED at, it captured everything. even the masturbatory moment you mention, that little dream, is not simply a product of her mind but a reflection of her emotional state.. the entire film is guided by her emotional state, sometimes as a reflection of thoughts but more often as a consequence of things words simply cannot express.

  • adele is to emma as freddie is to master. ABSOLUTELY. there's a lot of great things that are true in this film, that are mysterious, and are true and mysterious in the master, can't wait to expand on this! and i don't mean content wise, but in their unflinching commitment to an actor's ability, ultimately an actor's humanity.

the sex scene was spectacular.
under the paving stones.

ElPandaRoyal

I agree that all the movie does is to put you in the character state of mind. You're always with Adèle during the whole thing and we see the world through her perspective. While I liked the movie very much (the only problem I had with the duration is that I saw it in a theatre with the most uncomfortable seats ever and after three hours I couldn't feel my ass) I have one complaint. Which is not that much of a complaint but more of a matter of personal taste, I suppose. It's about the directing and it's a point that I think Matt was trying to make: the movie just shows you stuff. While it may be great in extracting the best from the actors and making you almost BE the character for three hours it's at the same time cinematically flat. It's just close-ups of faces with very little detail about the world those faces inhabit. By detail I mean actual physical detail. There's one idea of mise en scène throughout and it's a shame as whenever Kechiche opens his shots a little bit we get some very good moments as well. I've been interpreting that, specifically the last shot of the movie (Adèle's full body walking along a street), as a way of Kechiche showing us that she's finally ready to leave her close-up life (her interior journey and obsession with Emma) and embrace the wide shots of the world ahead. But having not seen anything else by him, I don't know if this makes sense or if it's just the director's personal style. Anyway, great performance, excellent movie.
Si

jenkins

the blue is the warmest color graphic book comic thingy, the source material, has been translated and is out! stumbled upon it. very excited. a page will have black and white art, yet blue hair. sex scenes in here too, so the babies can still cry. i'm obvs buying this

classical gas

This is on netflix instant now.

Pas

Quote from: Pubrick on November 24, 2013, 11:09:24 AM
i saw it.

kechiche is an ass man.

main points i need to address in relation to things people have said so far:


  • even though the film eventually labels itself as two chapters there is no need to try to rate the "best" part. this kind of thing has irked me since full metal jacket, where something as meaningless as stating a preference for a "part" passes as valid critique.. it's valid opinion in that my own asshole can make such a simple statement, but it's not interesting. if you must waste time on which part is the best the least you can do is try to reflect on why there is even a distinction between parts. see, the difference in the parts is interesting, or rather the progress that takes place between them, not whether one worked or not. if any part didn't work, in the end you just didn't like the film.

  • matt35mm you are a cool dude but i have to disagree with you completely here: "The filmmaking doesn't really do anything to put you in her mind". i'm speechless.. you're making films man, this is not something i would expect a filmmaker to say.  i've hardly ever seen a film that has done MORE to put us in the mind of a character. basically, do you not consider acting as part of filmmaking? the example you gave as to a time we were given insight to her mind was literally being shown what she was thinking. the film develops its own language about what's going on in adele's mind, it's primary tool is adele's face.. did you at any point in the film look at her eyes? i know you always have liked to cut films down into departments. that may be what's happening here, you are looking at the image as if the camera is only looking from a distance, but it's not just looking, sometimes it's capturing. that's what this movie EXCELLED at, it captured everything. even the masturbatory moment you mention, that little dream, is not simply a product of her mind but a reflection of her emotional state.. the entire film is guided by her emotional state, sometimes as a reflection of thoughts but more often as a consequence of things words simply cannot express.

  • adele is to emma as freddie is to master. ABSOLUTELY. there's a lot of great things that are true in this film, that are mysterious, and are true and mysterious in the master, can't wait to expand on this! and i don't mean content wise, but in their unflinching commitment to an actor's ability, ultimately an actor's humanity.

the sex scene was spectacular.

Great post. I loved this film, the best i've seen in ages

wilder

Thanks to Pas' reviving this thread, I finally watched it tonight. Actually glad I waited - watching this movie now was like getting heavy rain after a long drought.

Quote from: max from fearless on October 18, 2013, 06:24:52 PM
Adele Exarchopoulos' performance in this is INCREDIBLE. Daniel Day Lewis level of commitment to the role. She goes all the way and does not look back. Kechiche may have driven her nuts, but I've not seen anything like this for a long time. Reminded me of Sandrine Bonnaire in 'To Our Romance', except she just goes further and further. An amazing film.

Completely. She blew me away. The acting is real.