Effrayante normale

La Vie d'Adèle (Blue is the warmest color)

Crit

It's reasonably safe to assume that I'm the only person to see this film through the eyes of participation in filming one particular lesbian coming-of-age story that's not in French or 3 hours long. (Have I mentioned, by the way, that the DVD release [lots of fun extras!] is imminent and you can already get the fantastic soundtrack?) So even though there's no comparison, it's up to me to compare them:

• number of leading ladies whom the camera loves: a tie, 2-2. Though I have to admit that if we had this to do over I'd have lobbied hard for blue hair on Danielle.
• awkward dinner with the ostensibly straight girl's house: I give us an edge on this, if only because the spaghetti Bolognese that Adèle's father proudly serves features pasta that clearly has been overcooked and doused in way too much sauce. As nasty as that food got as the takes piled up, I'll take good old American murdered cow and fries.
• dancing: more in La Vie, but that's partly a function of its almost double running length
• classroom scenes: ditto and ditto
• naked portraiture: we show more of the process, they show more of the product--and, it being France (specifically Lille, which is an interesting switch from the usual suspect), nobody gets in trouble
• hot lesbian sex scenes: OK, they kick our chastely draped ass here, and yes, it's a fair question whether the raison d'être of these scenes is more the male gaze than the narrative imperative. Google the title and "controversy" for more than you can possibly want to read about this.
• breakup scene: both are extremely painful to watch, theirs is more cruel and brutal
• reconciliation scene: can't compare them, but the coffee shop meeting in La Vie is very similar to and completely different from the L.A. health food restaurant meeting in Annie Hall.

So, but, wait: did I like the film? Yes, but. I liked that it's very much about sex but also about how life makes it impossible for sex to be enough. I empathized with both characters, though more with Adèle contrite for fucking up than with Emma unforgiving for a relatively small and understandable and in retrospect complementary lapse. But 3 hours? I can give no satisfactory answer to the "why" that must follow from that question.