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I have to admit I am a lover of French films, but also a lover of films that concentrate on people, relationships and feelings rather than action and excitement. Three Colours Blue fits the bill for me perfectly. The first part of a trilogy - the second being Three Colours White and the third Three Colours Red - it is French but is directed by Krysztof Kieslowski of Poland. I watched all three films several years ago but Blue was the one that appealed most to me, so I eventually decided to buy the DVD.
As the event happens at the outset of the film, I am not giving anything away by telling you that Julie's husband and only child, a daughter, are both killed in a car accident. Julie (Juliette Binoche) was in the car too but survives, and during the initial episode of the film we see her in hospital. She has to watch the funeral on television; her husband was a world-famous composer and his music is played as the two coffins are borne in front of the crowds.
The film centres around the way in which Julie tries to come to terms with her loss and how she decides to live her life after losing her immediate family. She flees from Olivier (Benoit Regent), another composer who is in love with her, and rents an apartment in Paris.
Her mother, suffering from dementia and residing in a care home, thinks Julie is her sister and can offer her no comfort. After some time, however, Julie discovers that the past was not as she had believed it to be, and the facts she uncovers influence her decisions and the path that her future life will take.
Juliette Binoche puts in a powerful performance as the woman who is devastated by a tragedy in her life. She shows the full gamut of emotions, and sometimes also the lack of them. The supporting cast add a variety of flavours to what might sound like a dreary film: the most fascinating of these is Sandrine (Sandrine Pernel), the prostitute who lives downstairs and who acts as the catalyst for Julie's discoveries. At the other end of the scale, in a scene where Julie is basking in sunshine, we see a little old lady with a curved spine, hardly able to walk, struggling to recycle her bottle in the bottle bank. She appears again, if I remember correctly, in Three Colours Red.
Visually this is a stunning film, and what struck me in particular were the close-ups of what seem to be minor details such as a tiny feather resting on a mattress or a sugar cube poised on the surface of a cup of coffee, absorbing the liquid and changing colour before plopping into the cup. I am intrigued by such attention to detail and was delighted to hear Kieslowski talking about this in one of the extras on the DVD.
The film revolves around more than one composer, and both orchestral and choral music - contemporary, of course - feature greatly in the film and add to its emotional intensity. The music was actually composed by Zbigniew Priesner, who I presume to be Polish. It was apparently played at the funeral of Kieslowski, who died in 1996.
The film is rated 15 and contains one or two sex scenes, although these are not particularly graphic.
Extras The first section of the Extras consists of a series of brief interviews with Juliette Binoche, lasting around twenty-five minutes in all. We hear her speak in French against a series of clips from the film, and there are of course English subtitles. She talks mainly about working with the director, Kieslowski, for whom she obviously had a tremendous respect. She describes how, two weeks prior to filming, the costumes arrived and they were not happy with them. Kieslowski decided that Binoche should wear her own clothes, and from that point on great trust was established between director and actor. Binoche explains that Kieslowski began to let her make decisions about how certain scenes should be acted out, although she does pinpoint one episode towards the end of the film where he insisted on her maintaining a cold, unfeeling expression whereas she would have preferred a gentler one that came from the heart.
In a Masterclass lasting six or seven minutes, Kieslowski talks about his attitude towards directing the film, focusing mainly on the five-second close-up of a sugar cube held by Julie on the surface of her coffee, showing how it absorbs the sugar. It is fascinating to hear Kieslowski explaining that the five-second timing had to be exact, meaning that his assistant had to spend half a day trying out different types of sugar to find a cube that would absorb the coffee quickly enough. Even more interesting are his thoughts on how Julie concentrates on such small details in order to shut out more important aspects of her life.
Other extra sections include interviews with the editor, Jacques Witta, and producer Marin Karmitz. Karmitz describes how he and Kieslowski met and began working together, always needing an interpreter because Kieslowski spoke Polish and English whilst Karmitz speaks only French. At the Venice Film Festival, however, the two found themselves drinking whisky together for two or three hours and managed to carry on a French-English conversation together. The following day Karmitz checked with the interpreter to make sure he had understood Kieslowski correctly, and he had. It was the first of quite a few such drinking sessions.
Trailers of each of the three films in the trilogy are included in the extras, as well as excerpts from the original soundtrack.
Conclusion I have said that this is a film that focuses on emotions, on people and circumstances. There are themes of emotional loss, generosity, and love in its widest sense. It is not one for those who are looking for thrill-a-minute action. It is, however, beautifully acted, and the visual excellence combined with the musical threads running throughout make this a film that I can delight in.
Also posted on Dooyoo under my username, frangliz.
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
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The first instalment of the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy on ... more
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![Three Colours Blue [DVD] [1993]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78537295.jpg "Three Colours Blue [DVD] [1993]")
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