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According to Vladimir Nabakov (and I�m paraphrasing a bit here), there are three stories that will never get told in the United States: (1) the story of an atheist who dies peacefully and contentedly in his bed at the age of 103; (2) the story of a happy interracial couple for whom everything ends well; and (3), a story like Lolita. In our own time, we could very well add a fourth category: the story of a gay couple who get along well together and for whom everything ends happily. The embodiment of the typical Hollywood depiction of gay love can be found in Ang Lee�s dreary and overrated 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, in which two closeted cowboys lead miserable lives and have a profoundly dysfunctional relationship, and then one of them gets murdered by homophobes (it�s not a spoiler if the movie�s been out for nine years and it�s not particularly worth seeing anyway).
Nabokov was referring specifically to America, but these considerations come into play in analyzing French filmmaker Abdelattif Kechiche�s epic lesbian romance Blue is the Warmest Color (2013), which won the Palme d�Or at Cannes in 2013 and which bears the original title of La Vie d'Ad�le � Chapitres 1 & 2, which means: �The Life of Ad�le � Chapters 1 & 2.� It follows the path of a teenage French girl, Ad�le (Ad�le Exarchopoulos), who embarks upon a romance with a (slightly) older woman, Emma (L�a Seydoux), who initiates her into adulthood in general and lesbianism specifically (and I don�t mean that in any sinister sense; I�m not saying she �recruited� her, or whatever bullshit Putin and James Dobson think gay people get up to; I merely mean to say that Emma is Ad�le�s first female partner and that she has more experience with lesbian relationships than Ad�le, who is a comparative novice).
And while I don�t want to give away too much of what happens, I can say that the film certainly doesn�t go all Brokeback Mountain on us, and that no one gets beaten to death and nobody languishes in the closet. Blue is the Warmest Color is one of the most vibrant and moving love stories I�ve encountered in some time and Exarchopoulos and Seydoux both give profoundly vivid and sensitive performances. When the film won the aforementioned Palme d�Or at Cannes, the festival took the unusual step of specifying that the award was not just for the director, Kechiche, as is customary, but also for the two leads. Their characters feel textured and �lived in.� The rich dialogue between them is reminiscent of that found in the films of another Frenchman, Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queen, A Christmas Tale).
Now, let�s say a few words about the �male gaze.� The film has generated some controversy over the graphic sex scenes between its two protagonists (or between their body doubles, I don�t know; I know that von Trier has made use of stunt doubles in his forthcoming Nymphomaniac). To put it bluntly, it has been argued that the film depicts a pornographic male fantasy of lesbian sex. In response to this, I would ask two questions: First, should we depict sex at all? It�s the 21stcentury, we�re enlightened and sexually liberated people, I so no reason not to. And if that�s the case, then what should the sex between Ad�le and Emma look like? What would it look like, other than what it was? Should Kechiche have cast less attractive actors for the roles? Are good-looking people (again, we�re speaking frankly here) not to have sex on film? Is it only artistically meritorious if the sex is gritty and unpleasant (as is the case in any number of other French movies; see: the films of Catherine Breillat and Bruno Dumont). No, I say that if we�re going to have sex in film, we might as well depict it graphically (because why not?) and if that�s the case, we shouldn�t be surprised if our movie stars look gooddoing it. And if the film is still guilty of perpetrating a male fantasy of lesbianism, then I say: let�s have more explicit male-on-male sex. We see it occasionally�Wong Kar-wai�s Happy Together, Almodovar�s Bad Education�but I�ll admit there�s not enough of it. There is still a preference for female nudity, and I suppose this can be attributed to the persistent dominance of male directors in the film industry. I don�t have an easy fix for this situation, but I do think it ill-advised to fault a movie like Blue is the Warmest Color for being what it is: a lesbian love story. If it�s not a gay love story (and I mean gay in the specifically male sense), that�s not an intrinsic flaw in the film.
