Three Colors: Blue
Composite Score: 86.5
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent, Florence Pernel, Charlotte Véry, Hélène Vincent, Claude Duneton, Emmanuelle Riva, and Yann Trégouët
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Writers: Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Genres: Drama, Music, Mystery, Romance
MPAA Rating: R for some sexuality
Box Office: $1.52 million worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
Three Colors: Blue is the first film in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors trilogy, which features White and Red as its two sequels, exploring broadly the concepts of liberty, equality, and fraternity, respectively, as they reference the French flag and the ideals of the French revolution. Blue takes on the first concept, “liberty,” by following a woman whose husband and daughter have died in a car crash as she seeks to reset her own life by living free from all human attachments. The film stars Juliette Binoche in the leading role of Julie, joined by Benoît Régent as her husbands occasional composing collaborator Olivier, Emmanuelle Riva as her ailing mother Madame Vignon, Charlotte Véry as her neighbor Lucille who is a sex worker, and Florence Pernel as her husband’s mistress Sandrine. Film critic Roger Ebert described the film as an anti-tragedy, and it has been celebrated for Binoche’s performance, Kieslowski’s direction, and the general twist on its themes of mourning and liberty.
At its core, Three Colors: Blue serves as a character study on mourning, loss, and human connection, but it’s the intentional direction of Kieslowski and the moving performance from Binoche that give the film its weight. Like the other two films in the trilogy, the titular color is present in virtually every scene, be it in the bluish-green lighting of a hospital room, the grey-blue of an overcast sky at Julie’s estate, the bright blue of a rec center swimming pool, or even the blue “jewels” of her daughter’s mobile, the only keepsake she keeps with her as she cuts ties with her past after the accident. Each presentation of the color carries with it the emotional implications of the scene, and it adds to the sense that Kieslowski has crafted something truly beautiful and intentional. Binoche’s Julie moves through this cool-toned world as adrift as she can possibly be, but the world refuses to let her truly drift, sending Olivier with his romantic advances and requests to help finish her husband’s unfinished work, Lucille with her friendly connection and need for a true friend in the midst of an inconsistent life, and even Sandrine with her own needs and connections to Julie’s own life that should sever her from any possibility of connection but instead leave her as this inescapable mystery that Julie must solve and reconcile. It’s a fascinating story that could easily leave some viewers wondering what it’s all for, especially those used to more easily spelled-out plots and thematic elements. Those willing to go deeper with Kieslowski and Binoche will certainly find themselves rewarded with a unique twist on tragedy, mourning, and liberty that invites even more pondering once the credits roll.
The intentionality of Kieslowski combined with the emotionally engaging, well-acted attempt at listlessness from Binoche carry Three Colors: Blue to a place of cinematic greatness. It’s not a film that necessarily caters to every audience, and it certainly takes some getting used to, but if you’re in a place that’s willing to engage with the themes and musings of a slower film, it’ll certainly scratch your itch and give you plenty to think about. If you’d like to watch this film, you can currently find it streaming on both Max and the Criterion Channel for at least the foreseeable future.
