White Chad'z rating: *** (out of 4 = good) 1994, R, 92 minutes [1 hour, 32 minutes] [drama] starring: Zbigniew Zamachowski (Karol Karol), Janusz Gajos (Mikolaj), Julie Delpy (Dominique), Jerzy Stuhr (Jurek), written by Krysztof Piesiewicz, Krzysztof Kielowski, produced by Marin Karmitz, directed by Krysztof Kielowski.
"White" is the second installment of Krzysztof Kielowski's "Three Colors" trilogy. My ethnic origins are French and Polish so maybe I have some kind of internal bias for liking this film which takes place in both France and Poland (and was made by French and Polish filmmakers). But all of that is really irrelevant because this is a good, moving film about love and freedom.
The story starts out in a French courtroom where a couple is getting a divorce. The husband's name is Karol Karol, (Zamachowski), a depressed and desperate man who loves his [soon to be ex-] wife Dominique (Delpy), but doesn't know what he did wrong and doesn't know how to make things better.
We then proceed to follow Karol around for a while which makes from some good characterization and offbeat dialogue and situations. He is a Pole stuck in France and wants to get back home, but has no money and no friends. Even Dominique is unwilling to help him and we really can sympathize with him. Karol is reduced to playing his comb like a harmonica, begging for change until he meets another Pole named Mikolaj (Gajos), and the two become close friends quickly. The two figure out a cunning way to sneak Karol back into Poland. Maybe the situation in premise is difficult to relate to, but it is the camaraderie between that two that makes the story so interesting, as everyone knows how important, almost life-saving, a good friend can be.
But Karol's love for Dominique has not diminished. He becomes a con-man of sorts, making a bundle of money through insider trading. Even through all this great storytelling and characterization we can still sympathize for his love for Dominique. He hatches a brilliant plan to get her back by faking his own death.
I guess the final act works pretty much as you'd expect it to. It starts to become a straight romance story, but all the while it's able to maintain its good characterization.
"White" does harbor rather profound themes of love and relationships, but it's more than a typical love story. It's a good film about living life to the fullest, because unlike the characters, there's no guarantees of second chances.
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e-mail: ChadPolenz@aol.com (C)1997 Chad Polenz
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