Hue and cry over love

IMAGINE going for dinner and the waiter forgetting your main course - that's probably how movie-goers might feel when they sit through Blue is the Warmest Colour, the controversial French coming-of-age drama that had its much talked-about lesbian sex scenes snipped to meet local censorship guidelines.

Those eight minutes might not be the film's be all and end all but director-writer Abdellatif Kechiche, who loosely adapted the story from a 2010 graphic novel of the same name, must have included it for artistic reasons so it's only natural to feel slightly shortchanged by the cuts.

How much that ultimately affects the movie on the whole, only the Internet-downloaders who have watched the uncut version will know. But as it is, Blue is the Warmest Colour falls slightly short of its hype, which includes scooping the top prize at Cannes last year and both its leading ladies sharing the acting award.