Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013)
None of the films on this list are to be advised to watch with one’s grandparents, but this is especially true for Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour. The film runs for three hours, and it feels like at least 10% of that is filled with long and graphic sex scenes, as the lead character Adèle strives to explore her new-found sexuality.
Although French cinema is known for its fairly constant examination of eroticism, this gives a much more grounded look at sex, stripped of any glamour. As beautiful and touching a love story as it is a top shelf favourite, the film was met with a mix of rapture and shock but it also represents an age of acceptance over titillation.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
There are many things in Stanley Kubrick’s excessively bleak and crazed masterpiece A Clockwork Orange that make it a necessary mention. This obviously includes the opening 20 minutes where a gang dressed in top hats and jock straps take the term gallivanting to a whole new level, by beating homeless men to death and raping women in their own home.
However, the rest of the film continues to test the audience’s morals every which way, as after Malcolm McDowell’s gang leader is brought to justice, he get’s the brainwashing treatment in a horrific Orwellian-like attempt at rehabilitation. Kubrick presents his audience with a vulgar human being and then asks the audience whether they are able to sympathise with him in relation to the bigger social picture. Boundary-breaking cinema from the master himself!
Elle (2016)
Showing that filmmakers still thrive on the opportunity to shock, Paul Verhoeven certainly doesn’t hold back with his visualisation of Phillippe Dijan’s novel Oh…. The film’s opening see’s the titular character being assaulted by a masked intruder. Whilst this assault is shocking in itself, it is Elle’s laissez-faire response that has caused much of the debate around the film: she rises, sweeps up the broken glass, takes a bath and orders sushi, omits to tell the police but casually tells her closest friends over dinner.
Elle appears to be, for the most part, unaffected by the incident, and takes on the task of tracking down the offender herself without help from the police, helping fuel reactions of a feminist masterpiece. Unlike traditional thrillers, it is not the violence that shocks or grips the audience (although violence is most certainly present), it is that Elle makes drastically different decisions to most people, subverting expectations and encapsulating the audience’s intrigue. Verhoeven has since said that only the fierce Isabelle Huppert could have given the justification and accessibility to such a closed off character, something we can definitely agree with!
Elle is available on Digital Download July 3rd, 2017 and on Blu-ray & DVD on JULY 10th, 2017.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
