On a purely surface level, you can draw comparisons between Céline Sciamma’s recent award-winning Cannes film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and the Palme d’Or winning film “Blue is the Warmest Color” from filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche. Both films, though very different in execution, follow a passionate love story between two women. However, for many film fans, that’s the beginning, middle, and end of the similarities, as Sciamma and Kechiche seemingly approach the subject from two completely different points of view.

Continue reading Céline Sciamma Appreciates Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Male Gaze” & Defends Sex Scenes In ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’ at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche is no stranger to critical acclaim…and controversy. The director’s career has been consistently appreciated by film fans and critics alike, earning him numerous awards, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2013. But throughout his almost 20-year career, Kechiche has also seen disparaging reports about his on-set and off-set activities. And so it shouldn’t be any surprise that the filmmaker’s latest work, “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo,” which premiered at this year’s Cannes, now finds itself with yet another controversy for Kechiche.

Continue reading ‘Blue Is The Warmest Colour’ Director Accused Of Plying Actors With Alcohol Until They Performed Unsimulated Sex In New Cannes Film at The Playlist.

The female ass is the main character of “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo,” and that’s not an exaggeration. After auctioning off the Palme d’Or statuette he won for “Blue Is the Warmest Color” in order to finance this film, director Abdellatif Kechiche returns with —  judging by its title — the second installment in a godforsaken trilogy. The rumors are true: “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo” clocks in at around four hours, each hour more excruciatingly mind-numbing than the last.

Continue reading ‘Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo’: Abdellatif Kechiche’s Torturous, Four-Hour Sequel Is the Butt of the Joke [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

It appears that the Cannes Film Festival and director Quentin Tarantino were able to their wish. Finishing just in the nick of time, the filmmaker has lined up the prestigious event as the location for the world premiere of his upcoming film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

THR is reporting that Tarantino’s latest film is the headliner of a new batch of films that are late additions to the upcoming Cannes lineup.

Continue reading Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon A Time’ Joins New Films From Gaspar Noe & Gael Garcia Bernal As Late Cannes Additions at The Playlist.

Abdellatif Kechiche is a controversial filmmaker, to say the least. He is perhaps best known for his films “The Secret of the Grain” and, of course, the Palme d’Or-winning film “Blue is the Warmest Color.” The director has been known, especially on the latter film, to be difficult to work with. But his latest controversy is perhaps much more severe. You see, Kechiche has now been accused of sexual assault.

Continue reading ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’ Filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche Accused Of Sexual Assault at The Playlist.

Faced with criticisms from some corners about the gaze employed on his young leads in “Blue Is The Warmest Color,” director Abdellatif Kechiche doubles down with his new film “Mektoub My Love: Canto Uno.” In fact, the trailer forgoes any dialogue and lets the camera dance around the characters who spend plenty of time making out and frolicking in their swimsuits.

Featuring a cast of mostly unknowns (Shaïn Boumedine, Ophélie Bau, Salim Kechiouche, Lou Luttiau, Alexia Chardard and Hafsia Herzi), the story follows a young screenwriter faced with a difficult choice between his lover and his career.

Continue reading ‘Mektoub My Love: Canto Uno’ Trailer: The Director Of ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’ Returns at The Playlist.

During the scintillating opening moments of “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno” a young man peers through a window at a couple having gorgeous, abandoned sex, described in tactile, fleshy images of the beautiful young woman’s tousled hair, panting mouth, fuzzy pudenda, dimpled thighs and sweet folds of puppyish flab. It’s an extraordinarily real, sexy sex scene, immediately reminding us of the thrillingly immersive filmmaking of which Abdellatif Kechiche is capable.

Continue reading Abdellatif Kechiche’s ‘Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno’ [Venice Review] at The Playlist.