Tender coming-of-age lesbian drama Blue is the Warmest Color was just awarded the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the coveted Palme d'Or, but the lesbian author of the graphic novel that inspired the film isn't applauding.
Julie Maroh, who wrote the graphic novel Blue upon which the film was based, penned a scathing review in French on her blog, alleging that director Abdellatif Kechiche cheapened the story and turned the lesbian romance into pornography intended to entice straight men.
"Maybe there was someone there to awkwardly imitate the possible positions with their hands, and/or to show them some porn of so-called 'lesbians' (unfortunately it's hardly ever actually for a lesbian audience)," wrote Maroh in a post translated by IndieWire. "Because — except for a few passages — this is all that it brings to my mind: a brutal and surgical display, exuberant and cold, of so-called lesbian sex, which turned into porn, and [made] me feel very ill at ease. Especially when, in the middle of a movie theater, everyone was giggling."
"The heteronormative laughed because they don't understand it and find the scene ridiculous," continued the graphic novelist. "The gay and queer people laughed because it's not convincing, and found it ridiculous. And among the only people we didn't hear giggling were the potential guys too busy feasting their eyes on an incarnation of their fantasies on screen."
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