“Blue is the Warmest Color” Cannes winner 1st trailer unveiled (video)

 September 20, 2013 - 11:54 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The first trailer for Blue is the Warmest Color romantic drama hit the web, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Blue is the Warmest Color, the gay, romantic drama with the infamous ten-minute sex scene that came seemingly out of nowhere to take the top prize at Cannes this year, is headed to U.S. shores on Oct. 25. The French film brings with it an NC-17 rating and some controversy -- the stars and director Abdellatif Kechiche had an uncomfortable exchange during the film's Los Angeles press day over working conditions -- but mostly, it brings with it a tidal wave of good buzz, much of it heaped upon the nuanced and naturalist performance of its two stars, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux.

Now comes the film's first American trailer, a worldess mini-film set to the longing vocals of French-born Victoria Legrand, lead singer of dream pop duo Beach House. Double-takes, meaningful glances, hands held, kisses stolen, glasses raised, faces slapped -- the entire cycle of young love is captured here.

It was all enough to earn a designation as "magnificent" from Cannes jury president Steven Spielberg, whose praise for Blue ("We were under the spell of the film and its wonderful actresses...") is quoted in the trailer.

“Blue Is the Warmest Color …is a 180-minute celebration of love in all of its forms, from joyous to heart-shattering.

As Adèle and Emma express their uncontrollable affections for one another, the shared passion is all over the faces, and elsewhere. Kechiche shows the audience just how intense his characters' feelings are for each other. And in that, the controversial sequence never feels exploitative. It's unfiltered sexuality. The press members in that theatre yesterday weren't being asked to fetishize anything—the proposition centered on accepting the film's honest sensuality. And for many, myself included, the director's challenge was wholly welcomed,” Matt Barone said in a film review published at Complex Pop Culture.

“Clocking in at three hours long, it's a hugely ambitious work, almost to a fault. A handful of extended scenes don't warrant their prolonged durations—Kechiche has no qualms with letting his characters breathe, giving some of their routine chats with friends and workplace rituals more attention than seems necessary. But his dedication to uninterrupted episodes also grants his actresses the chance to vastly explore every facet of love, from the fiery lust that kickstarts relationships to the frustratingly complacent middle-sections experienced in longterm commitments and the agonizing lows felt when things fall apart.

Genuine to its core, Blue is the Warmest Color foregoes the neatness of a clean ending and lets the characters hurt, and Exarchopolous and Seydoux—whose chemistry forms the best cinematic romance you're likely to see anytime soon—reach towering and devastating levels of emotion in the film's dialogue-and-tear-driven climax,” the review said.