blue is the warmest color - Abdellatif Kechiche

Just about every person on this thread – not to mention the serious reviews – barely mentioned Those Scenes, or used Those Scenes to unlock the rest of the movie.

plus: Haven't seen this specific movie

I said "discussion at large," not discussion on ILX. Critics and folks have been talking about this movie for months. This thread was started a few days ago. And the reason the ask is because I'm trying to figure out if I should see it or not, or see it on the big screen or whatever. I can't see every movie, unfortunately, and three hour movies are particularly tough for me, so I'm vetting it through people whose tastes I somewhat trust or at least think I understand, vs. some hyperbolic NPR critic who extols the film as some monumental work but fails to explain just why.

Like, on that other thread someone linked to an essay extolling the virtues of Paul Walker, but fucked if I'm going to watch ten car chase movies.

see it on a big screen

there are other films like this, so don't see it

see it on a big screen. It's a good movie with scene constructions, lines, moments to think about for a while. The sex scenes bored me tbh cuz I'm a peculiar gay man who believes that for cinematic sex brevity is the soul of dick.

Thanks!

xp how true that is

Some lovely night in front of the fire.

damn josh those posts are steamin turds even by your standard

I have low standards.

I dunno, they make sense to me, I guess. There are a ton of rom-coms which could be described the same way, and not every one is "Some Like it Hot" or "Bringing Up Baby" or whatever. The way this is described, on paper, makes it sound like a Euro/art-film punchline from the '70s - which I know it is absolutely not - so I was trying to figure out what sets it apart by hearing discussions and reading conversations about it. And the way I heard it described made it sound like a lot of other movies I'd seen, which is by no means a reason not to see a movie, but depending on my time/mood may be enough to dissuade me. I finally saw "12 Years a Slave," for example, but in retrospect don't feel like I needed to. I'm trying to be judicious with my ticket buying.

Speaking of which, "Frozen" really isn't that good, but the snowman's summer song is great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFatVn1hP3o

my main complaint is that the love story itself could have been a little more original in terms of its twists and turns and the way it ends and the characters disentangle themselves. its more about what it does within and around that familiar framework than the framework itself. it is powerful, if not the absolute transcendental-existential masterwork its been made out to be. but maybe i would feel differently if i was still a teenager. it felt like a very 'big' vision for an intimate story and even when i kinda drifted away a little, i never felt it was boring. i want to see it again actually, though weirdly, as moved as i was, im not sure i really felt wholly sucked into it which is what i would want from a film thats meant to be as emotionally involving as this. my appreciation for it is a bit removed.

fair enough xp

Lowering expectations is the way to go for most things imo

you also have to have a certain affection for conversationally driven and intellectually meandering european art films mixed in with a bit of an interest in modern euro realism (i know its not 'realism' in the gritty/verite sense exactly, but its filmed quite nakedly, and unfussily which surprised me, i was expecting something more sublime visually, like ulrich seidl or something, idk)

unfussy is a good word for it, though there is some excellent camerawork in this

fyi josh it has subtitles too

am reading some of the reviews of this just now as have ignored them up to now, but this from littlewhitelies, seems right:

it is a lovely movie, albeit one which is so thorough and single-minded in intent, that it doesn't really leave anything much to ponder after the lights have gone up.

i dont think thats otm

a criticism that makes more sense applied to 12 Years a Slave.

xpost I think your divergent takeaways are possibly themselves a worthy ratification of the movie. Minus the revelation that there are subtitles, of course. Quelle horreur!

for about half the screening i saw the subtitles started showing up like this:

□□□□ This is a line of dialogue □□□

4 squares in front, three behind, for like 30mins at a time

especially during key moments of lesbian sex

http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/Magritte_the-treachery-of-images-this-is-not-a-pipe-1948.jpg

I liked this alright, but the breakup fight is both the worst and most predictable scene in it.

classroom scenes are v much akin to his L'esquive (a better movie)

nostormo yr analysis rocks

i think Kechiche made a mistake when choosing to somewhat abandon the political part in the 2nd part of the movie.

otm. there was enough space (p.sure the film is about 10 hrs long) to explore more fully the ideas abt class etc than the nods we get

instead, prosthetic fannies

Thoughts on this: I don't think Adele was ever political. The demo at the beginning is just a youth-thing, every highschool student in europe goes to those things. Adele and her friends act political instead of being political, it's meant to mirror the Gay Pride parade. Actually, most of the film is built of scenes mirroring one another. My reading of the ending is that it mirrors the scene at the lesbian bar. There, Emma turned up by coincidence. In the end, Samir turns the wrong way, again by coincidence. It shows just how much Adele has built her life on what seemed like destiny, but was pretty much coincidences.

Best moment in the film: When Adele acts like a rabbit in front of her kids. She has quite prominent teeth...

Rewatching The Secret of the Grain last week, I noticed an ass-slapping scene.

thinking about this in the last few days (perhaps that LWL review quote was wrong after all) and i now wish that it didnt have any sex in it at all (though it would then risk appearing coy and frightened of lesbian sex so maybe im just being prudish or worried about saying i find an actress almost 20 years my junior quite attractive) as it really just makes the film look a little disengenuous in its intentions. OTOH, without them, im not sure this film would really be half as notable as it is. without them, it would just be the latest in a somewhat familiar category in european cinema. still, kudos to kechiche (and francois ozon for jeune et jolie) for bringing back the great tradition of films about teenage girl sexuality made by middle aged men!

for about half the screening i saw the subtitles started showing up like this:

□□□□ This is a line of dialogue □□□

― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Tuesday, December 3, 2013 11:27 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

4 squares in front, three behind, for like 30mins at a time

― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Tuesday, December 3, 2013 11:28 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

omg yes what was this about

Emojis that didn't make it through the subtitle software.

As someone who has seen the first Hobbit movie, Josh in Chicago, perhaps three hours of your life isn't as precious as you think.

I'm trying to pin down whether this film is great or whether it is simply a great version of a film we've all seen before.

also, you only need to see about one film every 40 years if you take the more stringent option.

I'm waiting for this one to be released in 3D at a high frame rate.

Boy there would be some uncomfortable scenes if that were to happen...

would def watch those spaghetti scenes in 3D

I worried about the symbolism of the spaghetti until it showed up at the gf's art party.

Listened to a podcast where two SWM critics worried that the spanking made the sex seem like p0rn.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-El-KfL-Gi-E/UM05RZj91vI/AAAAAAAAaPc/PigCMSDqhBg/s1600/Lady+and+Tramp+spaghetti.jpg

My parents are coming over for dinner tomorrow night. Spaghetti.

Spaghetti is my family's "2nd Christmas" dinner this year.

I mean, jeez, who gets off without spanking, on a vanilla night?

"A worm crawls out of the spaghetti and says 'that was some gang bang!'"

not funny. also wrong: orgy.

"A worm crawls out of a plate of spaghetti and says 'that was some gang bang!'"
"How sweet!"
"'Sweet' may not be the word"