LOS ANGELES—Considering the fact that France is currently undergoing riots over its decision to legalize same-sex marriage, the decision by the Cannes Film Festival jury, led this year by Steven Spielberg and Nicole Kidman, to award its prestigious Palme d’Or award to a 3-hour film about lesbians could be seen as très courageux, non? But even if politics never came into play, controversy over the decision is already afoot, though not so much over the movie’s subject-matter as its unabashed sex scenes.
As described in breathless detail by the Daily Mail:
One scene includes a no-holds-barred twelve minute erotic sex scene between two women, played by Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos, that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.
The naked women writhed, licked and explored every intimate inch of each others [sic] bodies.
During the gala the audience sat in silence and craned their necks as if to get a better view of the steamy scenes unfolding in plain sight on the huge screen.
It's the most sensational win at Cannes in years.
The Mail goes on to note that the success of the Abdellatif Kechiche-helmed film—based on "Le Bleu Est une Couleur Chaude" ("Blue is a Hot Color"), a graphic novel by Julie Maroh and the first such adaptation to take the Palme d’Or—which it calls an “instant classic,” is attributable not just to the explicit sex but the “mind blowing performances of its two young stars.” But the paper also warns, “It may face problems with British film censors because of its erotic nature and for a scene involving what has been described as ‘erotic impressive scissoring' where the two women are lock their limbs in an intimate, and sensual, embrace.”
Over at American Thinker, a curmudgeon named Rick Moran has already posted up a complaint about a movie he hasn’t even seen, writing, “There are ways to portray lovemaking on screen - even lesbian or gay lovemaking - in a subdued, even tasteful manner. Nor am I arguing against making lesbian or gay films. These films will always offend some, no matter if there is any sex or not. They can make their own arguments why they think films that deal frankly with homosexuality are offensive.
“But Cannes has jumped the shark by rewarding this prurient descent into pornography. If the film is as good as the critics say, they can lose the 12 minutes of sex and few in the audience - except porn aficionados - would miss it.” How exactly he knows that is anyone's guess, but it's good to know this American thinker is so magnanimously tolerant of "lesbian or gay lovemaking" as long as it is "subdued, even tasteful manner."
Judge Spielberg, speaking at Cannes, naturally defended the decision, calling the film a “great love story,’ but he also readily admitted, “I'm not sure it will be allowed to play in every state.” Not as long as Moran has a say, it won't.
Blue is the Warmest Color has been acquired for distribution to the States, but the LA Times reports that a release date is as yet unknown.
More information about this year’s Festival de Cannes can be found here.
Photo: Abdellatif Kechiche, Léa Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos, accepting the Palme d'or for La Vie d'Adèle (Blue Is the Warmest Color), courtesy of Festival de Cannes.
