In an unusual move, the festival jury - blown away by the two main performances - decides to split the award between the director and the lead actresses. They alleged that Kechiche and his team had violated the Labor Code with “workdays of 16 hours reported as 8,” an “anarchic” schedule, and a “bullying” atmosphere. That same day, French film union Spiac-CGT released a statement to the French press leveling complaints against the director and his team regarding the conditions on set.
#WATCH BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR LESBIAN SCENE MOVIE#
In a review that day, Manohla Dargis of the New York Times argued that the film’s sex scenes weren’t so much art as voyeuristic exertions of the male gaze, writing that Kechiche “registers as oblivious to real women” and that “the movie feels far more about Mr. Yet early on there was criticism of the film’s anti-feminist tone. Here’s a timeline of how it’s all gone down so far:īlue Is the Warmest Color premieres at Cannes, receiving largely rave reviews (and a few audience walkouts). Kechiche shot back angrily, precipitating an ugly back-and-forth media brawl between Kechiche and Seydoux that shows no signs of simmering. Beginning with claims of poor working conditions by the crew and allegations of anti-feminism against director Abdellatif Kechiche, the merde really hit the fan after stars Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos criticized the director’s exploitative shooting practices in an interview with the Daily Beast. But soon a much less sexy controversy began to emerge. Still, critics were quick to praise the film as a masterpiece, which, despite its NC-17 rating, looked well poised to become the indie darling of this year’s awards season. Even before winning the Palme d’Or, the three-hour French lesbian love story was Cannes’ most buzzed-about film, largely owing to its graphic, seven-minute-long sex scene.
Blue Is the Warmest Color has been mired in controversy from the beginning.