Translation : "Manif pour tous - THE LAST SHOWING"
Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, “Blue is the Warmest Color” was released while France was experiencing one of the most polarizing social crisis of the 2010's: the same-sex marriage legalization. The movement, known as “La Manif pour tous”, was led by ex-comic Frigide Barjot. Hundreds of people rallied together and protested for months and managed to put a spoke in the socialist government’s wheel, gathering hundreds of people. The extent of these protests reflected the deep divisions evident in French society as far as the vision of family is concerned. The “Christian heritage” of France was heavily underlined by Nicolas Sarkozy during his 2012 race for the presidency, and seemed to go somewhat un-noticed. The French investigative journal Mediapart highlighted the links between the associations that were against the “La Manif pour tous” movement and Catholic or traditionalist extreme right-wing parties, such as the American National Organization for Marriage. Eight days after the legalization of same sex marriage in France and one day after the last “Manif pour tous” demonstration, “Blue” won the Palme d’Or.
Portraying the sexual and emotional re-awakening of a fifteen year-old girl (Adèle Exarchopoulos) falling in love with the mysterious blue-haired Emma (Lea Seydoux), “Blue is the Warmest Color" seemed so well timed considering the political context. Given the timing it did incur the risk of being a political object despite itself. And it was, as commentators pointed out the political significance of the award. Despite these accusations, director Abdellatif Kechiche always described his movie as a universal celebration of love, transgressing gender boundaries. In an interview with Le Figaro, he emphasized the social dimension of “Blue”, rather than its militancy. To him, the movie conveys social fractures at work in contemporary societies in a general way. The social differences between the two girls families and then the two girls themselves – Emma being a contemporary artist and Adele a teacher – is also relevant from this point of view. The strength of the movie actually lies in the multiple forms of social violence it crystallizes, while portraying a personal story. Indeed, Kechiche never stops individuating bodies, especially through unsteady close-ups: the best example is the first scene sex, whose length and harshness grabs the audience’s attention. As Julie Maroh, the author of the original graphic novel underlines it, the movie cleverly “banalizes homosexuality”, what implies a change of representation: while gay sexuality has always been suggested rather than shown in movies, “Blue” is part of a new generation of movies that deliberately make it explicit. Using long sequences such as this one would be a way to demystify and normalize gay sexuality representations.
But the most controversial social issue raised by the movie is actually what came out in the press one week after the Cannes premiere: in Le Monde, an important part of the film crew denounced the production process and the work conditions imposed by Kechiche. They described the filmmaker as tyrannical and his behavior towards them as harassing– to the extent that some quit the shooting. A few months later, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, confirmed this version of events and testified of the violence of the shooting. One year later, in 2014, the French “convention collective”, giving the legal framework for cinema and audiovisual media professions, was voted. Once again, “Blue” catalyzed a decisive issue as far as French cinema is concerned – the one of the “auteur” status, inherited from the French New Wave. Therefore, the social tensions portrayed in the movie unintentionally echoes the production process, as if, in the way, making a meaningful and relevant piece of art always required a form of violence.
