Derek Cianfrance’s American indie “Blue Valentine,” scooped up by the Weinsein Co. for its supposed awards potential after bowing in competition at Sundance, received health applause at a press screen for the Cannes festiva’s Un Certain Record section.

Emotionally and sometimes physically naked as a blue-collar couple at the beginning and the end of their relationship, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams inhabit their characters, who are shot in intense close-ups during their extremely unhappy final 24 hours together. Their young daughter, who is caught in the middle, oddly disappears for much of the movie.

Sort of an American “Scenes From a Marriage” (scenes of the couple’s courtship a few years earlier are charming), this is a film whose grim intensity often makes it difficult to watch. A date movie it isn’t.