The second charge, that it is exploitative or inauthentic, is also naive. The romantic spark between them is a lightning bolt.Īs for the much discussed sex scene, I predicted earlier this year that some sophisticates would claim to find it 'boring'. A good-looking boy who likes her is rewarded with a brief relationship, but he is merely John the Baptist to the imminent Christ: Emma, played by Séydoux, a twentysomething art student.

At the outset, Exarchopoulos's Adèle is a shy, smart high-schooler who finds that she is lonely and tentative in her social life. Adèle, played by Exarchopoulos, is the sympathetic centre of the story, a schoolgirl at the beginning and a teacher by the end: the two chapters of innocence and experience. Its original French title is perhaps a better guide: La Vie d'Adèle Chapitres 1 et 2. This drama was never supposed to celebrate the equality of their romantic good faith. It no longer looks melodramatic, but rather the icy and violent culmination of a hitherto invisible disconnect between the two women. But I think that the impact of the movie increases with a second viewing, and my own objections about the lovers' ferocious 'confrontation' scene have been answered. Led by this internal dissent, the film's critical tide may be slowing, if not turning. Seydoux and Exarchopoulos have since said he was oppressive, intrusive, and even tyrannical in the demands he made, especially in the extended explicit sex scene, which took fully 10 days to shoot. As for Kechiche, his feelings about that last-minute requirement to share the Palme with his two actors can only be guessed at – and the same goes for their feelings about his feelings.

Julie Maroh, who wrote the original graphic novel, dismissed Kechiche's adaptation as a straight person's fantasy of gay love. But the jury and its president, Steven Spielberg, insisted the prize should be accepted not only by the director, Franco-Tunisian film-maker Abdellatif Kechiche, but also by his two young stars, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. The Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes film festival went to the epic and erotic love story Blue Is the Warmest Colour. Big success in the film business often means opening a can of worms along with the champagne.

Blue is the warmest colour (2013)