Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux star in the film Controversial and raunchy lesbian coming-of-age drama Blue Is the Warmest Colour will open in New Zealand theatres in February. The acclaimed French romance won over judges at Cannes this year, claiming the Palme d'Or. However it’s also been slated over its extensive and explicit sex scenes, which critics say are an unrealistic straight man’s fantasy of lesbian. The flick follows the relationship between Adele (Adèle Exarchopoulos) - a sensitive 15-year-old with a passion for literature - and Emma (Léa Seydoux), an older university arts student. Seydoux has since said she will never work with director Abdellatif Kechiche again as that she felt like "a prostitute" when filming the movie's lengthy and graphic sex scenes. The scenes have also been heavily criticised as unrealistic by the author of the graphic novel it’s based on. Julie Maroh wrote on her blog that she viewed the film's sex scenes as "a brutal and surgical display, exuberant and cold, of so-called lesbian sex, which turned into porn, and me feel very ill at ease”. She added: “Especially when, in the middle of a movie theatre, everyone was giggling. The heteronormative laughed because they don't understand it and find the scene ridiculous. The gay and queer people laughed because it's not convincing, and found it ridiculous. And among the only people we didn't hear giggling were the potential guys too busy feasting their eyes on an incarnation of their fantasies on screen.” The divisive film is due to open in New Zealand cinemas on 13 February.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 9th December 2013 - 2:23pm