La vita di Adele

I envy people who haven't seen this film. Easily the best film I've seen this year. Everything in it is generalisable, you can recognise bits of your life in the various stages. (For me it's the cafe scene, my God, Adele says she used to eat scabs, in that scene she's sticking a dagger in her own heart and twisting it- it's excoriating, naked and raw. Sado- masochistic, almost. She's asking a question she knows the answer to and the answer will torture her).

It's an emotional voyage, the sex scenes are not that important, there's more lascivious eating than sex, the leads are absolutely incredible. This film really, truly moved me. I hope Adele's OK.

I certainly blinked when I found out this movie was 3 hours long, especially considering that it won the Palm d'Or where many winners have a slow and painful plot. This movie on the other hand does a great job keeping every scene riveting through great dialog and riveting emotions. I would compare many of the scenes in this movie to Tarantino scenes where scenes take on a life of their own. Cleverness and awkwardness were dispersed in a way to make it seem real and ultimately human. I felt wonderfully disappointed when certain scenes ended. The actresses held nothing back in their body language and added much to the moment-to-moment importance of their character development.

This year's Palm d'Or winner is a coming of age story about a teenage girl, Adele (the literal title in French is The Life of Adele), who discovers her homosexuality and begins a relationship with Emma, a college student. For a while, I was thinking this was a good but fairly unremarkable entry into the queer cinema canon, but, over the film's three hours, well, you see why the long running time was necessary. It is just a very detailed picture of a life. It feels more real than most films - it feels like more time has past and that we've just felt Adele's growth. Frankly, I didn't feel the length of it at all - I wanted it to be longer. It really helps that the actresses are so perfect. Adele Exarchopoulos is simply fantastic - this is the performance of the year, really. Her face is so expressive. The film takes place over several years, and you really do see her grow from a child to an adult. Lea Seydoux plays Emma. Her role is less demanding, but she's still great in it. Now, the biggest story of this film has probably been the graphic sex scenes. My opinion on them: I actually do think they're a bit too graphic, gratuitous and almost pornographic. I try to justify them artistically in my mind, and I'm afraid I can't. There's a plot point near the end where you kind of have to know that the girls' sex life was fantastic, but I'm not sure we had to see it in anywhere near as much detail as we did. They're without a doubt awkward to sit through, but they don't ruin the film either.

Of the two competition films I saw in Cannes, this was luckily one of them. If you enjoy foreign cinema at all you will likely find this mesmerizing. I'm a straight male but I couldn't help but feel strongly for the two women during this unconventional love story.

I'll go ahead and let you know that the sex scenes are incredibly graphic (though some have claimed they are unrealistic) and VERY long. I didn't clock any of them but I'm pretty sure one of them is 15 minutes. So, fair warning.

I'd recommend BItWC to anyone who didn't like Transformers 3 or Pirates F-ing 17. Great acting. Great direction. Strong Story. Plus, it's the Palm d'Or.

Seldom will you find, such adoration, unrefined, as a beautiful romance, takes us with it on its dance, though the rocks that taunt us all, cascade, descend, to cover all, but the passion and desire, leave you breathless and on fire!!!

Perfect, in almost every way.