I saw the trailer for this a while back and remember being excited to see it. Lea Seydoux is a wonderful up and coming actress and the lead Adele Exarchopoulos seemed like an infinitely charming girl in just a few seconds of footage. And then the reviews came out and it attained a bit of a reputation. I mentioned that I wanted to see it to a coworker and he gave me that suggestive smirk... I felt so much rage in that moment, but this is an older coworker who has a history of objectifying women, so I let it go. But, it left a residual ickyness about going to see it at the local indie theater. If the assumption is that no single young guy could ever appreciate a film like this, a film that closely examines the intense passion between two young girls, then what am I doing there in the eyes of other people. I must be there perving out. People should know the difference between pornography and drama, but that single comment from a coworker made me question that.
But, tonight I built up a little courage and went to see it. Unfortunately, my worst fear came true. I walked in to find a seat and while taking off my coat a woman in the next row looked at me with eyes of harsh judgment, but without initially saying anything. To break the tension of the moment, I said "Hi," with my library voice, given the venue. After an awkward pause she raised her voice so that everyone around could hear and said, "Uh, hi. You here to watch the girls?" I was stunned, shocked, disgusted that someone would actually accuse another person of something like that. Instinct delivered the next line, but I was so flustered it came out awkwardly, "No! This is an art film... funny though." She just turned back to face the screen and I tried to hide the red hot anger I felt.
Then the film started... and it was beautiful. It was passionate and intimate, full of complex, confused emotions, intelligent scenes of witty dialog. The lead actresses gave such stunningly real performances. But, the audience in the theater tried their best to judge it, giggling during scenes of immense tension, giggling and guffawing during the sex scenes which really did push the boundaries of mainstream film, but why we're still considering the human body a taboo at this point in societal development is beyond my comprehension. All people should care about is that the sex was important for the filmmaker to express. He wanted to show us the frantic love between two girls, one confused with her sexuality, confused with what love means, and the other mysterious and charismatic, a teacher, a happy guide into unknown territory, and the sex between them was a very important part of that. I loved the film and I'm glad Abdellatif Kechiche had the guts to do this.
On my way out of the theater I was behind a few young people and overheard one person's review which was met with agreement among friends, "I thought it was bland, I wasn't even surprised by anything, it was just boring." A comment like that after a film like this makes me think they had never loved before, had never been lied to and felt pain, had never had frantic, desperate sex with someone they were infatuated with, because if they had, this film would remind them of all those moments in their life and fill them with an appreciation for life itself.
5/5
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