There is much commonality in most love stories on film, with interest coming mainly from how they are told. I found the telling of this tale of two young women who fall in love to be engaging from several perspectives. First of all I was taken with Adèle Exarchopoulos, the actress who plays Adèle, the protagonist. If you do not respond to her physically or emotionally, then your experience of this movie is likely to be quite different from mine. Léa Seydoux, who plays Emma, Adèle's love interest, was less appealing to me, but was well cast nonetheless.
Adèle's first encounter with Emma was an exchange of casual glances as they walked past each other. I liked that scene, since it was subtly done yet you knew from that first eye contact that these two were destined to be involved in some way. It may not have been love at first sight, but that usually just means sexual attraction at first sight and Adèle and Emma had that.
Director Kechiche had to have been fascinated with Exarchopoulos, given the many ways he filmed her to accentuate her appeal, it's like he couldn't get enough of her. He used her infectious smile to great advantage. A good part of the movie is taken up with closeups of Exarchopoulos and Seydoux.
I liked the way that Adèle did not anguish too much over her sexual identity, a theme that is prominent in a lot of gay themed movies. After some initial experimentation involving men and an attempted contact with a woman, once Emma was on board Adèle knew that she wanted Emma and she never seemed to doubt herself in spite of getting flack from her mates.
Early in their relationship Adèle and Emma are seen engaging in explicitly sexual acts. These scenes have created a lot of buzz, but I think they are essential to the movie, since sexual attraction is what has brought these two women together and, as we get to know them, it is seen that the sexual attraction is going to have to be strong enough to bridge some cultural gaps. Emma comes from a family with liberal parents, a family that delights in eating oysters and drinking fine wine, while Adèle's family is more into table wine and spaghetti with Bolognese sauce. Emma associates with artists, philosophers, actors, and other elites. Emma is so much more experienced and sophisticated than Adèle that I did wonder how this relationship was going to work out, absent the sex. But it was Emma who broke it off, or was she just looking for an excuse to do so? To Adèle's credit she recognized the cultural differences but, in spite of some small intimidation, she felt no need to pretend artistic inclinations. She likes children and, as the movie develops, we see that Adèle does have a natural talent in the classroom in front of small children. There is a scene where Adèle is involved in a group interaction with her class that has the kids so rapt that it reminded me of that fantastic scene in "The 400 Blows" that has the kids attending a Paris puppet show.
The sex scenes are filmed with an appreciation of sculpture. In some scenes I could not quite figure how the women got themselves into the positions they were in. I had the feeling that maybe it was good that these women were lesbian, since finding a man who could satisfy them would be a challenge. It is not a stretch to see how this movie could be played as a love story between heterosexuals, but trying to see how it would work with gay men is more difficult to imagine. At the least male sex scenes would probably not make it past the censors. Apparently neither Exarchopoulos nor Seydoux is a lesbian, so the fact they could get themselves to do the sex scenes amazes me.
This kept my attention for the full three hours.
Adèle's first encounter with Emma was an exchange of casual glances as they walked past each other. I liked that scene, since it was subtly done yet you knew from that first eye contact that these two were destined to be involved in some way. It may not have been love at first sight, but that usually just means sexual attraction at first sight and Adèle and Emma had that.
Director Kechiche had to have been fascinated with Exarchopoulos, given the many ways he filmed her to accentuate her appeal, it's like he couldn't get enough of her. He used her infectious smile to great advantage. A good part of the movie is taken up with closeups of Exarchopoulos and Seydoux.
I liked the way that Adèle did not anguish too much over her sexual identity, a theme that is prominent in a lot of gay themed movies. After some initial experimentation involving men and an attempted contact with a woman, once Emma was on board Adèle knew that she wanted Emma and she never seemed to doubt herself in spite of getting flack from her mates.
Early in their relationship Adèle and Emma are seen engaging in explicitly sexual acts. These scenes have created a lot of buzz, but I think they are essential to the movie, since sexual attraction is what has brought these two women together and, as we get to know them, it is seen that the sexual attraction is going to have to be strong enough to bridge some cultural gaps. Emma comes from a family with liberal parents, a family that delights in eating oysters and drinking fine wine, while Adèle's family is more into table wine and spaghetti with Bolognese sauce. Emma associates with artists, philosophers, actors, and other elites. Emma is so much more experienced and sophisticated than Adèle that I did wonder how this relationship was going to work out, absent the sex. But it was Emma who broke it off, or was she just looking for an excuse to do so? To Adèle's credit she recognized the cultural differences but, in spite of some small intimidation, she felt no need to pretend artistic inclinations. She likes children and, as the movie develops, we see that Adèle does have a natural talent in the classroom in front of small children. There is a scene where Adèle is involved in a group interaction with her class that has the kids so rapt that it reminded me of that fantastic scene in "The 400 Blows" that has the kids attending a Paris puppet show.
The sex scenes are filmed with an appreciation of sculpture. In some scenes I could not quite figure how the women got themselves into the positions they were in. I had the feeling that maybe it was good that these women were lesbian, since finding a man who could satisfy them would be a challenge. It is not a stretch to see how this movie could be played as a love story between heterosexuals, but trying to see how it would work with gay men is more difficult to imagine. At the least male sex scenes would probably not make it past the censors. Apparently neither Exarchopoulos nor Seydoux is a lesbian, so the fact they could get themselves to do the sex scenes amazes me.
This kept my attention for the full three hours.