I began watching Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013) in my early 20s, soon after the film and I came out. I turned it off before Adèle met Emma. I even turned it off before the teenage porn scene between Adèle and Thomas. I turned it off within a few minutes of starting it because, as a working-class lass, I found the cinematography and overall vibe pretty unrelatable in its pretentiousness – like many indie films I attempt to watch.
The funny thing is, after finally watching Blue is the Warmest Colour until the end in 2024, almost 10 years later, after it was suggested numerous times for our Lesbian Media Lesbians Love list, the cinematography was actually one of its only redeeming qualities. Is it because I’ve studied art in between watches? Do I “get it” now? Who am I? Are you there, Sappho? Save me!
The acting was also brilliant. It felt almost unscripted. Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos do a fantastic job. Superb. Hats off, women. If this film wasn’t directed, written, and produced by men then it really could have been somethin’… beyond a pornographic cautionary tale that lesbians are there to be watched by men and ultimately need them in order to be fulfilled.
Where to start? Alright, the teenage porn scene between Adèle and Thomas. His dick’s out, she’s inserting it, she’s bouncing on top, his dick flops out, he cums in her while he’s on top during missionary. They’re 15. In secondary school. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to see a literal penis going into a vagina in my movies (“lesbian” movies, no less!) to understand what’s happening. Just felt like a legal way for men to imagine that they’re watching a 15-year-old girl fucking for real. Which it was.
Adèle Exarchopoulos, who plays Adèle (weird they’ve got the same name, right?), was 20 when Blue was filmed. Getting her to fuck on screen as a 15-year-old is pedophile propaganda. I don’t care if the age of consent in France is 15. A 20-year-old’s body and general essence is much more mature than a 15-year-old’s. Teaching audiences that 15-year-olds are much more grown and sexually mature than they are, and using a 20-year-old to prove it, is not lost on me.
It gets worse. Adèle sneaks into a gay bar with her openly gay guy friend of the same age, Valentin. She then finds a lesbian bar. It’s a big joke that all the lesbians realise how young Adèle is, but they don’t care, they flirt with her–it actually turns them on that she’s so young–because didn’t you know? Lesbians are fucking predatory!
18-year-old Emma takes a real liking to Adèle. Emma is butch, the ultimate “predatory lesbian” in heteropatriarchy’s eyes. She even shows up to Adèle’s school for their next hangout, like adult men waiting in the bus bay for teenage girls when I was in high school. Adèle, the little doe-eyed 15-year-old, is bound to be corrupted! The steamy affair ensues, with lots of explicit lesbian sex to tantalise the men behind the camera who are pretending to do something for lesbian representation. Or art. Or whatever other excuse men use to fetishise lesbians and sexualise 15-year-olds.
Emma mentions Jean-Paul Sartre as her philosophical hero. Fitting, considering Sartre and his life partner, Simone de Beauvoir, petitioned against age of consent laws and in fact “had sex” with 15-year-olds. De Beauvoir exploited her profession as a teacher to seduce female pupils and pass them on to Sartre, “who had a taste for virgins.” But “anything goes,” right? That’s what’s groovy, man!
In the years that follow, the women move in together. Adèle becomes a school teacher. Emma tries to kick off her career as an artist by having many house parties with some high-flying men who can help. Adèle plays the housewife role, cooking for all the guests, standing there awkwardly when men gawk at, and ask questions about, Emma’s nude art of her.
Emma has all the power in the relationship. Not surprising, considering Adèle was 15 when they first started fucking. The men who made this movie deliberately portray Emma, the older butch lesbian, as misogynistic, violent and controlling – like men are socialised to become. She parades Adèle around as a sex object, uses her to make a good impression on her colleagues, and exploits their lesbianism to garner the interest of male artists/curators.
The relationship is doomed to fail because the film is hellbent on arguing the necessity of males in female lives. It becomes abundantly clear that Adèle wants children and adoption, IUI and/or IVF are out of the question for some reason. Emma falls in love with a pregnant woman at one of their house parties, meaning she has a ready-made family. Blue perpetuates the myth that all women want children, which is why lesbian relationships are viewed as nothing without men. What will women do without babies?
Adèle becomes the Whore to pregnant woman Lise’s Madonna. Adèle revenge-fucks her male colleague multiple times when Emma spends more time with Lise. Emma physically assaults Adèle and calls her a “whore” when she finds out. They break up.
When they meet up years later, Adèle tries to fuck Emma at the table, in a restaurant, and a porn scene ensues. Not even under the table but loud moaning and fingering in front of other diners. Like all normal lesbians do. Emma admits that the sex with Lise isn’t as good but ultimately resists Adèle’s “whoreish” ways and returns to her family somewhat unscathed.
The only time the couple were happy was when they were fucking for the male gaze. Their relationship went unseen and ultimately fell apart when it wasn’t sexy enough for men. Blue is the Warmest Colour profited off the two most popular porn categories of all time, “teen” and “lesbian,” but made it cool because they were intellectual and artsy about it.
Nobody likes to picture a working-class, sweaty, hairy, balding old man jacking off to lesbians and teens at his computer–for good reason–but when lefty men with money make a pornographic film sexualising teens and fetishising lesbians then it’s totally groovy and definitely Saying Something Interesting. Fuck Blue is the Warmest Colour.
Heck yea! I too was disturbed when I watched it. I learned to articulate the difference of the male gaze. I am surprised it is in many list and tried rewatching it again a couple of years ago, I just kept fast forwarding it and regretted trying to watch it again!