'Blue Is The Warmest Color' Too Blue for Boise

BOISE, ID—You may already have heard of Abdellatif Kechiche's sexy film, Blue Is The Warmest Color, which this year won the Palme D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival from a jury headed by mainstream celebs director Steven Spielberg and actress Nicole Kidman—and considering its content, that's quite a win. The film stars Lea Seydoux, who's had roles in such blockbusters as Inglorious Basterds and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and relative newcomer Adèle Exarchopoulos as a pair of lesbian lovers, and the plot traces their relationship from its beginnings to its possible end—and doesn't leave anything out. "One scene includes a no-holds-barred twelve-minute erotic sex scene between two women... that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination," stated a report in The Daily Mail (UK). "The naked women writhed, licked and explored every intimate inch of each others [sic] bodies." "This is a landmark film with two of the best female performances we have ever seen on screen," said Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, which will be releasing the NC-17 film in the U.S.. "The film is first and foremost a film about love, coming of age and passion. We refuse to compromise Kechiche’s vision by trimming the film for an R rating, and we have every confidence that ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’ will play in theaters around the country regardless." Sounds pretty good, eh? And LA area residents who want to see it can check it out next Wednesday night, October 16, at USC's Ray Stark Family Theater—click here for tickets—or wait until it opens in theaters nationwide at the end of October. One place folks won't be able to see it, though, is at The Flicks, an arthouse theater in Boise, Idaho, which has previously shown such fare as Hysteria, another film festival favorite starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, which deals with the invention of the vibrator and its use on several Victorian era women. So, what's the problem? Well, it seems as though The Flicks has a liquor license allowing them to serve beer and wine at the snack bar—a fact which puts the theater under the legal control of the Idaho State Liquor Commission, which requires the owners to obey Idaho Code 23-614, which according to Variety prohibits the theater from showing anything that contains "acts or simulated acts of sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation and flagellation," not to mention, "any person being touched, caressed or fondled on the breast, buttocks, anus or genitals." It's unclear just how many award-winning art films and Academy Award nominees that small-minded approach to free speech has prevented (or will prevent) Idahoans from seeing, but at least as far as Blue Is The Warmest Color is concerned, Variety does point out that after its theatrical run is over, the movie will be available on IFC's VOD site where, huddled around their computer screens, lesbian sex fans can consume all the beer and wine they want while watching it... and wondering how uptight their politicians had to be to pass such a restrictive ordinance.