Three Colors: Blue (1993)

Original Title

Trois couleurs: Bleu

Genre

Drama

Director

Krzysztof Kieślowski

Countries

France | Poland | Switzerland

Cast

Juliette Binoche, Benoit Régent, Emmanuelle Riva, Florence Pernel, Guillaume de Tonquédec, Charlotte Véry, Yann Trégouet, Hélène Vincent, Philippe Volter, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy

Storyline

After the death of her husband and daughter in a car accident, Julie (Juliette Binoche) attempts to start a new life, free of personal commitments, belongings, grief and love.

Opinion

I am not familiar with Kieslowski's work, at all, but I still decided to give his Three Colours trilogy a try because of all the good things I've read about it. As you can guess, "Three Colours: Blue" is the first film of the trilogy. And the first disappointment I had. The film isn't necessarily bad, but it isn't that great either. It is just a slightly above average drama.

This film doesn't have an actual plot, but that's not even the real problem. The problem is that it revolves around an affair that moves so slowly it ends up being tedious, unbearable even if you don't have a lot of patience.

However, Kieslowski kind of redeems himself with the film's theme, liberty. It is not a physical liberty, like being able to do whatever you want, or the political and social liberty as meant in the French flag, but an emotional liberty, the liberty for the main character, a woman who has lost everything/everyone she cared about, to get free, to let go of her memories and emotions. To be psychologically free.

Another point in favour of the film is the striking cinematography. Slawomir Idziak truly did a tremendous job. His use of colour and light is spot on, and they are beautifully used to keep things in and out of focus. And the shots of Juliette Binoche are beyond stunning.

And then there is Juliette Binoche who proves to be the right choice for the lead as she gives a quite strong and expressive performance.