The scene I'll be analyzing is a scene from "Blue is the Warmest Color," a French indie film on Netflix.
This film is about a girl a girl, Adèle, in her teen years finding out that she is not into boys. The scene I am analyzing is the scene where she first realizes that she prefers girls to boys. Prior to this scene, she went on a date with a boy that all her friends were encouraging her to get with. Due to the peer pressure from her friends, she had sex with this boy but it was obvious she didn't enjoy it. Although the boy was extremely nice and was into her, she ended up breaking things off with him for reasons she couldn't yet understand.
In the scene that I am analyzing, she is sitting on the stairs near her school with one of her friends. The camera mostly stays in a medium shot, two shots, or over the shoulder as the two characters talk to each other. They are both smoking a cigarette (a very french thing to do, despite being so young). Another girl walks down the stairs past them and the camera stays focused on the other girl while Adèle's friend comments on her butt saying that it's nice. There's a medium/close shot on Adèle as she looks shocked to hear a girl speak openly about another girl. You can tell that Adèle is not used to hearing this but she also appreciates the openness of her friend. Her friend continues to talk about girls and also comments that Adèle is one of the prettiest girls in their grade. With another close up on Adèle, you can see her blushing slightly as she humbly denies being one of the better looking girls. Her friend continues to haggle her, saying that she is. The friend then leans in for a kiss. The camera is tight on them as they kiss. Although there are people in the distance, the tightness of the camera makes it seem like they are alone and it is understood that Adèle's first kiss with a girl went unknown by anyone else. However, as the camera pulls off them, it goes into a medium shot for Adèle's friend. The distance of the camera on her implies that the kiss meant nothing to her, she was distant from it. However, when the camera goes to Adèle, it's a close up, implying that she identified with the kiss and it meant a lot more to her than her friend. Adèle has just come to the realization that she may be a lesbian.
Though after this scene, Adèle does not end up with that friend and things get pretty awkward between them, it sets off the rest of the film of her being shunned by her other friends, her meeting a girl who is a lesbian as well, and them falling in love with each other. It's a great film and I'd suggest it to anyone who's willing to watch.
