La Vie D'Adele/Blue is the Warmest Color

Movie Name: La Vie D'Adele
Year of Release: 2013

Director: Abdellatif Kechiche

Stars: Adele Exarchopoulos, Lea Seydoux, Salim Kechiouche, Aurelien Recoing, Catherine Salee, Benjamin Siksou, Mona Walravens, Alma Jodorowsky

Genre: Drama, Romance

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 9

Synopsis:

"La Vie D'Adele" is this year's winner of the Palm D'Or and brings forward the talent of the director Abdellatif Kechiche, and the two main actresses, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, all three having shared that main award. The film follows the story of a young high school student, Adele, who is an average young girl, with dreams of becoming a teacher surrounded by children, whom she adores. Adele is also wrestling with her awakening feelings towards women, and those come rushing in when she meets the beautiful Emma (and her blue hair). Both girls start a friendship, Emma being an older art student who guides Adele, and that initial platonic friendship slowly becomes an amorous relationship.
"Blue is the Warmest Color" functions as an intimate portrait of the growth of a young woman into adulthood and into her own skin. Adele goes through the conflicts of understanding her own desire and where she wants to be in life, and the audience partakes in that intimate journey. Emma is the other side of this journey, a young woman who has understood her choices, and how she wants to live her life. Both these young women become involved in a relationship that is erotic, intimate, adult - they make their life visible to us, the audience, in a way that is almost voyeuristic. The two main actresses make this film utterly vivid, authentic and imminently realistic, and deserve all the praise they've been getting. A fantastic film worth watching.