Who doesn't love a sexy, controversial flick starring nubile women in love? Certainly not the nominating committee of the Cannes Film Festival. This year the 2013 film Blue Is the Warmest Color was awarded the Palme d'Or.
Not since Jerry and George were agog over Rochelle, Rochelle has a French flick gotten so much attention for its love scenes.
The acclaimed film by director Abdellatif Kechiche (Le Esquive and La Graine et Le Mulet) opens at Tampa Theatre today at 7:30 p.m. It's three parts emotional coming-of-age and one part coming-out drama, focusing on 15-year-old girl (Adèle Exarchopoulos) who falls love with an older woman (Léa Seydoux from Midnight in Paris).
Kechiche takes us into their budoir with extreme close-ups and an emotionally charged narrative compared to the films of John Cassavates, who also exhibited a knack for transformative female character studies.
The screenplay is adapted from Julie Maroh's graphic novel, and as of this writing the film has an impressive 90 percent certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Speaking of graphic, the love scenes have earned it an NC-17 rating by the MPAA. So no enfants under 18 will be admitted. Plus, they wouldn't have the attention span for it anyway. Its running time is around 3 hours and it's in French with English subtitles.
Tampa Theatre is at 711 N. Franklin St., Tampa. Tickets are $11, $9 for matinees. tampatheatre.org.
