Discussion Film / BlueIsTheWarmestColor

A borderline case imho. Somewhat I'm content with deeming it to be bittersweet. While it is cetainly a grave incision that Adèle has lost whom she assumes to be the love of her life, the two seem to have come to terms with each other again. I don't know if one should conclude from the ending that Adèle's miserably lost without a Hope Spot. However, on the downer side again, is the aspect with Samir - although I'm not sure whether I've missed the connotation of that aspect...

The film is called "The Life of Adele" (the French translation, anyway), not "The Love of Adele's Life." She's lost Emma, but Emma wasn't exactly perfect for Adele. She was Adele's First Love, true, but she was also emotionally distant and frigid, and tried to push Adele away from her passion because she deems it as below her. Though Adele was absolutely in love with her, separating from that kind of influence isn't a Downer Ending — Adele had to move on, she was miserable with Emma even though she didn't want to live without her.

imho the Hope Spot (isn't Hope Spot a negative trope anyway?) is that Adele has come to terms with her attraction towards women and can grow up to be her own person without Emma, for better or for worse. She's depressed over her loss, but she's young and she'll move on. In fact I think it's more insulting to say that Adele can only be alone and miserable without Emma and will never move on. As for Samir, I know they had a spark between them and it's possible they might meet up someday even though he just missed her as she was leaving. Even if they don't, we're still stuck with that last image of Adele, on her own but still living her own life, her coming-of-age story coming to a close.

Maybe this is more of a perspective, YMMV thing? It certainly feels like a Downer Ending when you watch a 3-hour love story about two people who don't end up together in the end, no matter the circumstances, but that's realism, I guess.

I guess I never properly looked at the Hope Spot page and thought it just meant something that indicates things might get better in the future. To me that's what was lacking at the end of this movie: an indication that Adele might have some happiness to look forward to. If Samir had caught up to her in the end it would have been different, but without that it looks like Adele missed a chance for happiness and we are given no indication that there's another one on the horizon.