For lovers of arthouse cinema it stands as one of the year's most highly anticipated and controversial films, a startling three-hour Palme D'Or winning saga of sapphic passion whose stars later denounced their director's working practices and vowed never to work with him again. But as US filmgoers sit down to view Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue is the Warmest Colour later this month, they may just spare a second or two to pity their counterparts in the mountainous rural state of Idaho, where the explicit French drama has effectively been banned.  Carole Skinner, owner of the Flicks theatre in Boise, said the cinema was unable to show the film because its alcohol licence prohibits the screening of movies which feature "acts or simulated acts of sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation or any sexual acts which are prohibited by law" and "any person being touched, caressed or fondled on the breast, buttocks, anus or genitals". Blue is the Warmest Colour, suffice to say, includes pretty much all of the above.  Worse still, the Flicks theatre is the only cinema in Idaho which shows European and arthouse fare. "It isn't because we're prudes," an apologetic Skinner told the Hollywood Reporter.  There was better news for Kechiche and his stars Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos in their native France, where Blue is the Warmest Colour opened at the weekend. The film is currently riding high in second place at the box office, and picked up the biggest debut of the year for a homegrown movie. The successful bow is a partial vindication for the film's distributors, who opted for a 9 October release date at the expense of disqualification for next year's Oscar for best foreign language film. It also suggests that the row over Kechiche's controversial working methods has only boosted interest in the movie.  Exarchopoulos and Seydoux complained during the Toronto film festival that they had been put through a gruelling 10-day shoot for the 10-minute love scene at the centre of the film and were forced into a continuous one-hour take - during which the director refused to allow his stars to simulate blows - for a separate fight scene. Kechiche later lamented that his stars' comments would make it impossible for audiences to view the offending scenes "with a clean heart and a watchful eye" and mournfully called for the film's release to be cancelled. He said: "In advance, they will ask: 'Did this man not harass the girls? Did they not cherish [the experience], too, and they do not dare say it?"  At least Idahoan arthouse lovers can cross state lines to catch Blue is the Warmest Colour later this month. UK cinemagoers will have to wait until 15 November to view the Cannes prize-winner. A pair of screenings at the London film festival are already sold out.  • Blue is the Warmest Colour: watch a clip of the Cannes Palme d'Or winner
Alcohol licensing laws which prohibit screening of films with a sexual nature stops arthouse cinema from screening Palme D'Or winner