BFI LFF PREVIEW: BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR

Without doubt one of the most anticipated films showing at this year's LFF is Blue Is the Warmest Colour. After a rapturous response from critics at Cannes in May, where it made its world premiere, the film went on to win the Palme d'Or from Steven Spielberg's jury, for its director Abdellatif Kechiche and its stars Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux. It has been beset by controversy since then, though, with harmful allegations about Kechiche's working method made by crew members, a bout of trash-talk from the writer of the source graphic novel, Julie Maroh, and a very public spat between Exarchopoulos and Seydoux and their director. The film, which is about the relationship between a teenager coming to grips with her sexuality and a woman in her twenties, has already been touted for awards success later this year, despite all of the negative press it has received, its foreign language component (combined with the fact that it's not going to be released in time to qualify as the Foreign Language Film submission for France at the Oscars, and has thus not been chosen), its 3-hour runtime and its NC-17 rating. But if Steve McQueen's Shame appeared to prove that Academy members aren't so keen on watching NC-17-rated films, I wonder if they might make an exception for a film with extended scenes of graphic lesbian sex. Unquestionably one of the films I'm most looking forward to in London, and no, that has nothing to do with that last comment I just made. Nothing. At. All...