THREE COLOURS: BLUE
[Spoilers]
A film review by Gareth Rees
Copyright 1993 Gareth Rees
France, 1993. Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski Starring: Juliette Binoche, Benoit Regent, Florence Pernel Music: Zbigniew Preisner Duration: 100 minutes
[spoilers]
Julie (Juliette Binoche) is happily married to rich and famous composer Patrice, and has a lovely young daughter. Within a couple of minutes of the opening of the film Julie's husband and child are killed in a car crash. Her life, that was once full of good things, is now empty, and Julie has to somehow learn to cope.
Her first reaction is to hide; she leaves her manor house and orders that all its furniture be sold; she rents an apartment in a slightly disreputable part of the city; she spends her time drinking coffee and trying to forget.
But she is unable to escape her husband's music. Just before his death, he was working on a commission for a grand symphonic chorus that would be played at a festival of European Unity. Whenever she is reminded of her husband, poignant extracts of this unfinished chorus appear to haunt her. She visits the archives and destroys the manuscript, but still the ethereal music follows her.
There are minor twists and turns (she meets her husband's mistress and befriends a stripper) but finally she is forced to come to terms with her bereavement by completing the chorus.
Stated barely like that, THREE COLOURS: BLUE sounds corny and unconvincing. But in fact it's a joy to watch; Binoche is very pretty and conveys very well the anger and frustration and resentment of her grief. The music is wonderful (composed by Zbigniew Preisner who composed the equally excellent music for LA DOUBLE VIE DE VERONIQUE), more so by the spareness of its use--the only times the film uses music are when brief extracts of the chorus visit Julie; at these times the characters seem to stop moving and the screen slowly fades to blue. The plot may not be exciting but that doesn't seem to matter; THREE COLOURS: BLUE is a simple film that left me wanting more.
THREE COLOURS: BLUE is the first of a trilogy of films by Kieslowski that will be dedicated to the three colours of the French flag and explore the themes of liberty, equality and fraternity.
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