Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)
- Before Léa Seydoux was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- The original script for Blue Is the Warmest Color was written over a decade before production finally began in 2013.
- The incredible score for Blue Is the Warmest Color was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
Blue Is the Warmest Color is a 2013 French coming-of-age romantic drama directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, based on Julie Maroh's graphic novel. Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos star as Emma, a blue-haired art student, and Adele, a high school student who falls deeply in love with her, in a film that chronicles their passionate relationship from first glance through several years of intimacy, artistic growth, class difference, and eventual heartbreak. Blue Is the Warmest Color won the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival — awarded to both the director and the two lead actresses, an unprecedented decision — and the film's explicit, extended love scenes sparked global debate about the representation of female sexuality, the male gaze in cinema, and the boundaries of artistic expression.
Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux both later described the filming conditions as emotionally and physically exhausting. The three-hour runtime allowed the relationship to develop with novelistic depth. Blue Is the Warmest Color earned $28 million worldwide.
