695 Blue is the Warmest Color

[Jeff]

Blue Is the Warmest Color



The colorful, electrifying romance that took the Cannes Film Festival by storm courageously dives into a young woman’s experiences of first love and sexual awakening. Blue Is the Warmest Color stars the remarkable newcomer Adèle Excharpoulos as a high schooler who, much to her own surprise, plunges into a thrilling relationship with a female twentysomething art student, played by Léa Seydoux. Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, this finely detailed, intimate epic sensitively renders the erotic abandon of youth. It has captivated international audiences and been widely embraced as a defining love story for the new century.

Disc Features

- New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Abdellatif Kechiche, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Trailer and TV spot
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic B. Ruby Rich

A full special edition treatment of this film will follow at a later date.

DVD:
Criterionforum.org user rating averages

Feature currently disabled
Blu-ray:
Criterionforum.org user rating averages

Feature currently disabled

[lady wakasa]

Sundance Selects/IFC has scheduled the U.S. debut for the Palme d'Or winner on October 25th. It will likely play Toronto and Telluride first. Wild Bunch has it scheduled for October 9th in France, which means it won't be eligible for the "Best Foreign Language Film" Oscar.

Trying to figure out if that's the commercial release, or if there's any hope of it showing up at the NYFF.

Like the poster, too (though I bet it changes by time it gets to the US). Do you have any info on it?

[Jeff]

Trying to figure out if that's the commercial release, or if there's any hope of it showing up at the NYFF.

Like the poster, too (though I bet it changes by time it gets to the US). Do you have any info on it?

10/25 is the commercial release date (NY/LA), though I wouldn't be at all surprised if it played the festival first a couple weeks earlier.

That's the international poster Wild Bunch used when selling the film. I like it too, and hope IFC uses a variation of it.

[GaryC]

15 November in the UK, via Artificial Eye - which strongly suggests a slot in the London Film Festival the previous month.

[Jeff]

The MPAA has unsurprisingly branded this with an NC-17. I'm more surprised that Sehring submitted it at all.

[hearthesilence]

Maybe it was a practical matter, like for theatrical exhibitors who won't show unrated films but are open to showing an NC-17 movie on limited screens.

[flyonthewall2983]

This is a little disturbing.

[matrixschmatrix]

Hmm, that sounds unpleasant, but not necessarily problematic- like, pushing your actors harder than they're comfortable with in general seems more or less acceptable, whereas unethical behavior in pushing them in a sex scene could fall into not-okay territory. I think if the actors had a bigger problem with the fight scene than the sex scene, that implies the former, more than the latter. Though one never really knows how much people are being politic in talking about movies in the success of which they have a significant interest.

[tenia]

It's quite funny actuallt, because there has been so far 3 huge debates about the movie, and it's not even released yet.
1) The movie won the Palme d'or right in the middle of a controversial discussion over the legalisation of gay marriage, and Cannes festival has been (stupidly) accused of serving a political agenda.
2) During the Cannes festival, some technicians of the movie accused Kechiche of having "tortured" them during the shooting, especially by being particularly dedainful with them.
3) and now, when nobody talks about the movie anymore, BOOM, new controversy restarted, now about the actresses.

Funny how it seems to be right during the final sprint to the release date.

Anyway. He's not the first one to push his actors far, nor certainly the last one.

[shaky]

Kechiche responds

[zedz]

It's quite funny actuallt, because there has been so far 3 huge debates about the movie, and it's not even released yet.
1) The movie won the Palme d'or right in the middle of a controversial discussion over the legalisation of gay marriage, and Cannes festival has been (stupidly) accused of serving a political agenda.
2) During the Cannes festival, some technicians of the movie accused Kechiche of having "tortured" them during the shooting, especially by being particularly dedainful with them.
3) and now, when nobody talks about the movie anymore, BOOM, new controversy restarted, now about the actresses.

Funny how it seems to be right during the final sprint to the release date.

Anyway. He's not the first one to push his actors far, nor certainly the last one.

Didn't you miss the hugest debate? (About the depiction of the lesbian sex scenes.)

[tenia]

Didn't you miss the hugest debate? (About the depiction of the lesbian sex scenes.)

I don't remember it being big in France. It has certainly been overshadowed by the debate over the gay marriage, anyway.

[Kirkinson]

I'm a little uncomfortable with how casually stories like this seem to be dismissed when they come up. Just because we're used to hearing these things doesn't mean they should be taken lightly, or that they should be accepted as commonplace. There are plenty of directors in the history of cinema (and the history of theater) who have achieved a portrayal of raw, intimate beauty and truth without resorting to methods like this.

I mean, one hears about incidents like this all the time on film sets:

And [Kechiche] became so crazy that he picked up the little monitor he was viewing it through and threw it into the street, screaming, 'I can’t work under these conditions!'

There are very few other jobs in the world at which such behavior would be tolerated, and speaking as a filmmaker, I don't understand why filmmaking is considered an exception, and I don't think it should be. There is no good reason for a film set to be immune from common workplace ethics. And of course, this is something only a director, producer, or highly-respected actor could get away with -- you can be sure that if a boom op lost his or her shit like this they'd be fired immediately. I don't think anyone should be expected to work happily in an environment where the director (or anyone else) is treated like some rich couple's spoiled child, whose tantrums are required to be not just tolerated but actually indulged by everyone else on the set. No matter how high passions may be, there is no excuse for violent behavior, and it warrants an apology at the very least.

[Brian C]

Well, I'm happy to casually dismiss it, on the grounds that the allegations seem pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. So someone throws a tantrum now and again ... I could not care less.

Besides which, I don't really agree that "such behavior" would be so inexcusable in every day life. I've worked with people in perfectly average settings that have tantrums and throw shit around and generally act like assholes occasionally. And in every case, management (which I've been in some cases) makes a quick little calculation as to whether putting up with that kind of crap is worth it or not based on the particular person's value to the team. Sometimes great people have bad days and it gets put up with because it sucks to lose good people even if they're high-maintenance at times. Sometimes it's the last straw in a line of problems.

Whatever. If I was to get all worked up every time some report of someone being an asshole came across the wires, damn, it would just never end. I just don't have that much outrage in me, sorry.

[Kirkinson]

I'm not exactly outraged by this particular case, I'm just irritated at a pattern I see that allows filmmakers (and artists in general) some vague degree of moral impunity, and I was looking at this case as part of that pattern rather than simply another story about an asshole being an asshole. I'd be happy to be convinced I was wrong to look at it that way.

[tenia]

Same here. This is actually no exception.
I also have my share of co-workers acting like a-holes most of the time, even throwing tools to other people's face in a group meeting, threatening people and chasing them around in the factory to kick them.

These are workers which have been in the company for 15 years, and for the 4 years i've been working here, I've never seen them under any threat of losing their jobs. Actually, they survived 2 lay-off plan, where 30% of their colleagues were fired, some much more competent than them.

Of course, it's not excusable, but it really is no exception. Except than, in this case, fame and big money is behind.
Jobless people suffer, people with really bad working conditions suffer, children and people living in war zone suffer. For years. Decades, sometimes.

But these actresses ? 2 months and a half in your life, for high salary, fame, going to Cannes and then touring in LA ?

I don't really feel sorry for the actresses. I would feel sorry for the technicians, because they have badly paid jobs, and are not at all aknowledged for the job they're doing. They won't have any recognition.

Yes, it's tough. Yes, it can be done without all this.

But I have hard times feeling sorry when there are much worse things in the world around.

And by the way, Kechiche is also the guy who went to the hospital to rant and insult his editor on La faute à Voltaire for being what he called something as an "incompetent cunt". She was there because she had terminal cancer, and actually died from it a month later.

So, you know...

[Kirkinson]

I understand that there are assholes everywhere and that even people who aren't assholes have tantrums. While working in retail I was once physically assaulted by a manager and I chose not to report it officially because I was told by the one person in upper management I talked to that if I filed a formal complaint my manager would be fired very promptly and I didn't want this one, brief mistake to cost her a job she'd had for over a decade. So I decided it would be better to talk to her first and explain why I thought what she did was inappropriate, then decide whether or not to file a complaint based on her reaction. She took it to heart, apologized very sincerely, and never did anything like that again, even though she still had tantrums, so I never filed a complaint and my manager was never officially reprimanded in any way.

That would be enough: I don't think that kind of dialogue is too much to ask for. I'm not saying the production should have been stopped or that Kechiche should have been replaced or that no one should ever work with him again. I just think it should be OK to talk about why a director throwing a video monitor in a fit of rage might not be appropriate. And I'm not just thinking about the actors here, this affects everyone on the set down to the lowest gopher.

(And do I really have to clarify that I also care about the innumerable far worse things that are happening in the world?)

[MichaelB]

It's probably just as well that Kechiche wasn't working with Klaus Kinski.

[tenia]

I just think it should be OK to talk about why a director throwing a video monitor in a fit of rage might not be appropriate. And I'm not just thinking about the actors here, this affects everyone on the set down to the lowest gopher.

Of course.

In all the discussions and ITWs I'm reading here and there, that's what I'm most surprised by : the fact that Kechiche never answers about himself, but only about how it's justified by this thing or this person.

At no moment he says "Yeah, I over-reacted". You can over-react. It happens, that's life, but you have to assume this fits of rage, and understand how it affects people you're working with. He doesn't. For him, it's normal. It's justified because Seydoux wasn't good quick enough, or that the light wasn't as he wanted, or whatever was not fitting his tastes.

But he's just a diva, basically. Not the first one, nor the last one, and that's probably why it doesn't shock that much.

It's probably just as well that Kechiche wasn't working with Klaus Kinski.

I'd probably be lovely to be on this type of shooting set.

[Finch]

Kinski would have devoured Kechiche for breakfast.

PS.: I'm with Kirkinson in this matter. There is no justification for directors to behave like this at all. I'm a filmmaker myself and would never dream of treating anyone in my cast & crew like this because it'll follow you around. Seydoux may have a better job than most people but that doesn't mean she ought to put up with this treatment.

[Brian C]

I'm not exactly outraged by this particular case, I'm just irritated at a pattern I see that allows filmmakers (and artists in general) some vague degree of moral impunity, and I was looking at this case as part of that pattern rather than simply another story about an asshole being an asshole. I'd be happy to be convinced I was wrong to look at it that way.

If the people involved with the film don't want to work with Kechiche again, fair enough. If he has a harder time making films because he develops a bad reputation and scares potential collaborators away, that's on him. I'm not excusing his behavior in particular. The specific allegations here don't amount to much in my view, but I wasn't there and don't know that whole story. He'll have to answer for his own actions, at any rate.

What I'm saying, though, is that I think you've very narrowly defined this "pattern" to make it seem more pernicious than it really is, and that you've made a pretty weak case that this is more than a story about an asshole being an asshole.

The only pattern here is that if you have something to contribute, you're often cut more slack. And what I was trying to point out is that it's not exclusive to filmmakers and other artists, but also the people with minimum wage jobs that I work with. I see nothing wrong with that, and in fact on the whole it strikes me as generally fair.

[Kirkinson]

Fair enough. I've worked minimum wage jobs for years, too, and still have one right now (since I don't make a living from filmmaking) and I've seen my share of tantrums from co-workers along the way, but the number of cases I'd compare to this one are pretty small. So it may simply be that I'm reading more into the allegations against Kechiche than you are.

[gcgiles1dollarbin]

The only pattern here is that if you have something to contribute, you're often cut more slack. And what I was trying to point out is that it's not exclusive to filmmakers and other artists, but also the people with minimum wage jobs that I work with. I see nothing wrong with that, and in fact on the whole it strikes me as generally fair.

In all the jobs I have had--and it would probably cause this site to crash if I submitted the list--I have never once encountered an asshole who could overcome and compensate for the fact that he or she was an asshole through his or her "fabulous" work. The behavior was always counterproductive, and even if one were to put aside hard feelings and thin skins on the part of other employees/collaborators, it always undermined the bottom line. There is this myth that the genius (or even the guy who seems to work harder than others) is naturally temperamental and that his mood swings must be tolerated, but this is crap. It's bad enough in non-creative work environments, but it totally destroys creative daring and others' will to push themselves when the leader is a prick. Having toiled in bands for years (as well as other creative endeavors), I have never seen an art project that couldn't be vastly improved by the subtraction of an asshole (and I was occasionally that asshole, brothers and sisters!).

None of us were witnesses to Kechiche's antics, obviously, but if he is as much of a wanker as he sounds, he will forever diminish his abilities as an artist, particularly within such a necessarily collaborative environment as the film set.

We only think that assholes are ambitious and triumphant because the few that succeed against all odds are, unfortunately, the most conspicuous and visible through their behavior. But most of them slink around in the sludge of obscurity and isolation, occasionally barking through the murk at anyone who is stupid enough to listen to them for a few seconds.

None of which, of course, necessarily contradicts Brian's quote above, but as you can probably tell, I have strong feelings on the subject and wanted to emphasize the destructive nature of unpleasant behavior and the fact that cutting a jerk slack is rarely justified, particularly on the basis of productivity.

[domino harvey]

The four greatest directors of the Classical Hollywood era-- John Ford, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, and Otto Preminger-- were by most accounts total and complete assholes and they consistently made skillful, important, and valuable contributions to cinema. I haven't seen this movie but I-- underline, bold, italics, larger font size-- don't care if a director is a dick if it results in a great film. I have no idea if this is one, but out of hope for greatness, I reserve the right to not care about the "ethics" of the construction of any film, good or bad.

[jindianajonz]

I don't think there's really much difference between the filmmakers and other industries. The key thing to keep in mind is that the director is a boss- if I threw a fit, yelled at a coworker, smashed a computer, etc, I would probably get fired, but if the CEO or somebody else with relatively little oversight did it, he wouldn't face any reprimands as long as what he did was legal. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if high level type A personality corporate people behave like this all the time- they just don't have to deal with their employees getting interviewed by entertainment magazines.