4) Blue Is The Warmest Color
After scooping the prestigious Palme D’or award from the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, Blue Is The Warmest Color became a subject of severe scrutiny by film scholars and critics, who lauded its female-focused approach, welcomed a new talent in Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche, and provided expansive commentary on the significance of the controversial sex sequences that had certain audiences members up in arms.
The fact that Blue Is The Warmest Color was based on a French graphic novel from 2010 largely became lost amid the movie’s intense reception, and Julie Maroh’s source material was pushed briefly aside in the melee as every critic clambered to throw in their own two cents’ worth on the movie’s themes.
Perhaps another reason that Maroh’s graphic novel was glossed over by some was due to the fact that director Keciche uses the same characters to transform the movie into something a little different from the book that inspired it. The movie and book are set in slightly different eras, which creates noteworthy distinctions given the all-encompassing theme of homosexuality. After all, the further you go back, the less accepting society appears to be with regards to same sex relationships. As such, the particulars of the relationship between the two young female leads differs between graphic novel and film, but the main themes of love, longing and discovery remain safely intact.
Blue Is The Warmest Color will forever be the first comic book adaptation to win a Palme D’or, and for that reason alone its source material deserves wider attention. You may be startled by the differences in third act across the alternative forms of media, but with both the film and the novel, all the key ingredients are there for fine, deeply affecting work that’s worthy of your time.