{{Short description|2019 sci-fi film by Bertrand Mandico}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox film | name = After Blue | image = After Blue poster.jpg | alt = A poster shows a teenage girl looking over her shoulder toward the viewer. Below her as if a mirrored image is a woman's face. The woman is covered in glitter with an expression of ecstasy. | caption = Release poster | native_name = {{Infobox name module|fr|After Blue (Paradis sale)}} | director = Bertrand Mandico | writer = Bertrand Mandico | screenplay = Bertrand Mandico | producer = Emmanuel Chaumet | starring = {{Plainlist| * Elina Löwensohn * Paula Luna * Vimala Pons * Agata Buzek }} | cinematography = Pascale Granel | editing = George Cragg | music = Pierre Desprats | studio = {{Plainlist| * Ecce Films * Ha My Productions }} | distributor = Altered Innocence | released = {{Film date|df=yes|2021|08|ref1=<ref name="press" />}} | runtime = 129 minutes<ref name="tomatoes">{{cite web |title=After Blue - Rotten Tomatoes |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/after_blue |website=Rotten Tomatoes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240115084556/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/after_blue |archive-date=15 January 2024 |url-status=dead |access-date=11 January 2024 |language=en |date=3 June 2022}}</ref> | country = France | language = French | budget = | gross = }}
'''''After Blue''''', also called '''''After Blue (Dirty Paradise)''''' ({{langx|fr|After Blue (Paradis sale)|links=no}}), is a 2021 French science-fiction fantasy film written and directed by Bertrand Mandico.<ref name="tomatoes" />
== Plot == <!-- Unlike all other characters, Kate Bush is only ever called by her full name. --> In an undetermined future, Roxy is a teenage girl who lives in a community with her mother, Zora, on the planet After Blue, a planet inhabited only by women. One day on a beach, Roxy and other girls from her community encounter a woman named Kate Bush stuck in the sand. Despite suggestion from the others that Kate Bush may be a criminal undergoing punishment, Roxy helps her and sets her free. Roxy sees Kate Bush has one hairy arm and an eye on her mons pubis and becomes infatuated with her, but Kate immediately resumes her criminal activities. Roxy and her mother are held responsible and are exiled from the community, tasked with murdering Kate Bush if they wish to return. Roxy and Zora encounter dangerous people and environments as they traverse the lands in search of their bounty.
== Cast == {{Cast listing |style=column-count:2 | * Elina Löwensohn as Zora * Paula Luna as Roxy * Vimala Pons as Sternberg * Agata Buzek as Kate Bush * Michaël Erpelding as Olgar 2 * Mara Taquin as Chiara * Claïna Clavaron as Luz * Claire Duburcq as Ivresse }}
== Production == === Filming === Principal photography began on 12 November 2019, occurring over seven and a half weeks, the movie was shot with 35 mm film.<ref name="press">{{cite press release |title=After Blue (Dirty Paradise) |publisher=publisher |url=https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/81/178/242257/presse/after-blue-paradis-sale-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf |date=August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204000530/https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/81/178/242257/presse/after-blue-paradis-sale-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf |archive-date=4 February 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=11 January 2024}}</ref><ref name="alca">{{cite web |last1=Deleva |first1=Emma |title=After Blue : paradis sale |url=https://prologue-alca.fr/fr/actualites/after-blue-paradis-sale |website=www.prologue-alca.fr |publisher=ALCA |access-date=11 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630035833/https://prologue-alca.fr/fr/actualites/after-blue-paradis-sale |archive-date=30 June 2022 |language=fr |url-status=live}}</ref> Filming largely took place in Corrèze and Creuse, France, while the beach scenes were filmed near La Tremblade, Charente-Maritime. A hangar in Brive-la-Gaillarde was used as a studio set.<ref name="alca" />
== Reception == === Critical Response === Film review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 74% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 50 reviews with an average score of 6.2/10. The site's consensus reads, "its overwhelming inscrutability may begin to feel more like a bug than a feature for some viewers, but ''After Blue'' is nothing if not original."<ref name="tomatoes" /> Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 12 reviews from mainstream critics, considered to be "mixed or average".<ref name="metacritic">{{cite web |title=After Blue (Dirty Paradise) |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/after-blue-dirty-paradise/ |website=www.metacritic.com |access-date=11 January 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Jude Dry, writing for IndieWire, gave the film a B score, describing the film as "a kaleidoscopic fantasy warped through the lens of a 1970s sci-fi Western, 'After Blue' is a synthetic siren song for the freaks of the future and the past."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dry |first1=Jude |title='After Blue' Review: Erotic Lesbian Acid Trip Is Like 'The Love Witch' Set on Planet 'Annihiliation' |url=https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/after-blue-review-lesbian-scifi-1234669878/ |website=IndieWire |access-date=11 January 2024 |date=7 October 2021}}</ref>
=== Awards === {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Award ! Category ! class="unsortable" |Ref |- | 74th Locarno Film Festival | FIPRESCI prize | <ref>{{cite web |title=Locarno Film Festival - 2021 (Switzerland) - Unifrance |url=https://en.unifrance.org/festivals-and-markets/174/locarno-film-festival/2021 |website=en.unifrance.org |publisher=Unifrance |access-date=11 January 2024}}</ref> |- | Fantastic Fest 2021 | Best Film | <ref>{{cite web |last1=Sharf |first1=Zack |title=Fantastic Fest Awards 2021: 'After Blue,' 'The Sadness,' and More Win Big — Exclusive |url=https://www.indiewire.com/awards/industry/fantastic-fest-winners-after-blue-1234667938/ |website=www.indiewire.com |publisher=IndieWire |access-date=11 January 2024 |date=29 September 2021}}</ref> |- | rowspan="2" | Sitges Film Festival 2021 | Special Jury Prize | <ref name="mubi">{{cite web |title=Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival 2021 |url=https://mubi.com/en/awards-and-festivals/sitges?year=2021 |website=MUBI |access-date=11 January 2024 |language=en}}</ref> |- | José Luis Guarner Critic's Award | <ref name="mubi" /> |}
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{IMDb title}} * {{Rotten Tomatoes}} * {{Metacritic film|title=After Blue (Dirty Paradise)}}
{{Bertrand Mandico}} {{Authority control}}
Category:2021 films Category:2021 science fiction films Category:2021 French films Category:French science fiction films Category:2020s French-language films Category:Films shot in France Category:Films directed by Bertrand Mandico Category:Films with screenplays by Bertrand Mandico Category:2021 LGBTQ-related films Category:French LGBTQ-related films Category:LGBTQ-related science fiction films Category:LGBTQ-related fantasy films