Abdellatif Kechiche’s latest venture is, in many ways, unafraid. It is a film that lingers unapologetically. From the genesis of love at first sight, it tracks the sexual awakening of young schoolgirl Adèle, who breaks away from her pasta-based working class parents to find love within the artisan shell-fish eating bourgeois. Love comes in the form of blue-haired painter Emma (Lea Seydoux), and is stripped away just as easily as the dye that laces her hair.

Incredible performances draw out social tension between the two families, enhancing the juxtaposed social environments of the painting studio and the French classroom, and the changes of the characters throughout their relationship.

The film details issues of class, race and sexuality and yet remains unafraid to leave questions unanswered. It comfortably finds contemporary ground; the rally against privatisation and increased fees resonates strongly, as unfortunately do depictions of homophobia.

The continuous assault of Kechiche’s camera angles force us into unexpected intimacies. This is a film that thrives off the senses; the camera is unapologetically focused on open mouths, damp eyes and cautious hands. Its intimacy is not flattering; the clumsy open-mouthed eating of Adele is initially repulsive, but in the end is endearing. The desire for food is paired with sex and Adele’s appetite for both is played out in unsparing close-ups.

Despite the controversy around them, the sex scenes don’t monopolise the intensity of the film. After we emerged from the cinema my friend expressed how they had felt more discomfort at the prolonged close-ups of Adele’s crumpled weeping face than with the displays of explicit sex.

However de-sensitised or assaulted viewers feel by these scenes, it’s hard to dismiss their contested filming process. They descend into gratuitously exposing shots but, although out of place with the subtle emotional lives of its characters, there’s a sense in which these scenes stay true to Kechiche’s intent; their function is to cause upset.

The final image of the film is a twist of genius, with a conventional fairytale heterosexual union denied unapologetically, smashed by the realism that marks this film in all its intimate uncomfortable beauty.