Blue Is the Warmest Color ending explained

What happens

Adèle meets Emma again, now living with someone else and raising a child. Emma is tender but clear that it is over. At Emma's exhibition, Adèle dances briefly, then walks away alone. Their love is finished, and she has to go on without it.

The last image

Adèle walks away down the street alone, away from the party.

What it says

The film treats love as an appetite, and appetites are not always met. Adèle still wants Emma, but the gap between them, in class, in ambition, in what went unsaid, was always there. She ends alone and still herself, moving on.