Julie Maroh, author of the graphic novel turned Cannes Festival winner Blue Is the Warmest Colour , blasted the film’s sex scenes on her blog. Critics are singing a different tune.
Blue Is the Warmest Colour, the book adaption that took home the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, has been groundbreaking in more ways than one. Not only does the plot focus on a lesbian romance, but it is also the first comic book adaption to win the prestigious Palme d'Or. Written and directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, the film has recieved praise from viewers and critics alike.
One individual is not so pleased with the film adaptation, and that is the author of the graphic novel the film is based upon. Author Julie Maroh called the film's long and drawn-out sex scenes, "a brutal and surgical display" on her blog. In contrast, critics have described the explicit love scenes as "magnificent" and "vividly real."
Source: comicsbeat.com
Julie Maroh wrote on her blog:
Source: youtube.com
I consider that Kechiche and I have contradictory aesthetic approaches, perhaps complementary. The fashion in which he chose to shoot these scenes is coherent with the rest of what he his creation. Sure, to me it seems far away from my own method of creation and representation, but it would be very silly of me to reject something on the pretext that's it different from my own vision.
That's me as a writer. Now, as a lesbian... It appears to me this was what was missing on the set: lesbians.
I don't know the sources of information for the director and the actresses (who are all straight, unless proven otherwise) and I was never consulted upstream. Maybe there was someone there to awkwardly imitate the possible positions with their hands, and/or to show them some porn of so-called "lesbians" (unfortunately it's hardly ever actually for a lesbian audience).
Because -- except for a few passages -- this is all that it brings to my mind: a brutal and surgical display, exuberant and cold, of so-called lesbian sex, which turned into porn, and me feel very ill at ease. Especially when, in the middle of a movie theater, everyone was giggling.
The heteronormative laughed because they don't understand it and find the scene ridiculous. The gay and queer people laughed because it's not convincing, and found it ridiculous. And among the only people we didn't hear giggling were the potential guys too busy feasting their eyes on an incarnation of their fantasies on screen.
I totally get Kechiche's will to film pleasure. The way he filmed these scenes is to me directly related to another scene, in which several characters talk about the myth of the feminine orgasm, as...mystic and far superior to the masculine one. But here we go, to sacralize once more womanhood in such ways. I find it dangerous.
As a feminist and lesbian spectator, I can not endorse the direction Kechiche took on these matters. But I'm also looking forward to what other women will think about it. This is simply my personal stance.
Source: sd-4.archive-host.com
Director Abdellatif Kechiche on filming the love scenes:
Via: Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images
