Lesbian drama leads Palme d'Or race

Warmest Color stars praised for 'phenomenal' performance Lesbian drama Blue is the Warmest Color is leading the charge for the coveted Palm d’Or prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, after the film was met with a unanimously rapturous reception by critics. The film by the French-Tunisan director Abdellatif Kechiche was praised by the Guardian newspaper for its “tenderness” in depicting the most intimate Lesbian sex scene in mainstream cinema history.
Clocking in at just over three hours, the coming of age drama follows the sexual awakening of a 17-year-old girl, chronicling her lesbian relationship over six years.
Critics described the non-simulated sex in the film, which premiered on Thursday, as "show-stopping" and "the most explosively graphic lesbian sex in recent memory."
However, Kechiche said his film was not intended as a statement.
"I didn't want to make a militant film with a message to deliver about a specific topic, in this case homosexuality. (But) it can of course be seen from that angle. It doesn't bother me," he told AFP on Thursday.
The film was primarily a story about a "passionate affair between two people, not specifically between two women," he added in production notes.
It was simply "a love story with all the beauty that that involves. I had more of a feeling that I was telling the story of a couple," he said.
Its stars Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos were praised by the Hollywood Reporter for their unflinching and “phenomenal” acting.
"We shot the scenes as if they were paintings. We spent a lot of time lighting them so that they are really beautiful," said Kechiche.
Homosexual dramas Stranger at the Lake and Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra have also debuted at the festival, prompting critics to credit this year’s event with heralding an era of greater tolerance.