Desire as the being in La vie d’Adèle, chapitres 1 & 2/Blue is the warmest colour

ABSTRACT

When addressing the concept of desire, it is similar to inspecting the experience for which cinemas usually offer because there is a type of language as a default affirming the viewer can be involved into the process of transformation of understanding. In the cinema La vie d’Adèle, chapitres 1 & 2/Blue is the warmest colour, such a defaulted language is complex, covering the cinema techniques, its realism style, and the controversial topic related to gender and sexuality. It is certainly to arouse the critiques upon its deployment of the protagonist’s desire, which brutally shows the intimate scene related to sexuality. On the one hand, it looks like apparently joining in the torrent of sexualising the female identity. On the other hand, it is undeniable to perceive there is an affect the cinema arouses to maintain a caring sentiment for the protagonist whose cinematic identity is not only restricted to the female. Moreover, such an affect is retroactive for rethinking the viewer’s ‘desire’ toward this cinema. This article argues that the complexity of such an affect reflects ‘The Lack’ in social discourse, which is beyond the definition of sexuality and gender but toward the concept of desire as the being.

KEYWORDS:

• Cinema
• affect
• desire
• psychoanalysis
• gender
• aesthetics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).