Blue (1993)

(Originally released as Trois Couleurs: Bleu)

Starring: Juliette Binoche, Benoit Regent, Florence Pemel, Charlotte Very, Helene Vincent, Philippe Volter

First, The Lowdown: The wife of a famous composer loses her husband and daughter, and runs away from her grief.

A hitchhiker walks down a country road. Yet another car passes by ignoring him, but then swerves off the road and crashes into a tree. He approaches slowly, then increasingly urgently when he sees the extent of the damage.

One of the passengers, Julie, wakes up in a hospital bed. She is severely concussed and her arm is in a cast. She can barely speak, and after waking the attending doctors regretfully inform her that both her husband, Patrice, and daughter did not survive the crash. Too lost in a fog of pain and painkillers, she passes out.

So severe are Julie's injuries that she cannot be moved from the hospital to attend the funeral for her husband and child. Because her Patrice was a famous composer charged with writing a symphony for the unification of Europe, she watches his memorial on a portable television. When Julie is finally mobile, she tries to kill herself, but cannot bring herself to follow through with it.

Returning to the expansive villa that was her home with Patrice, but it is filled with too many memories. Still Julie shows no grief and arranges to have the house and all of its belongings sold. Olivier, Patrice's colleague (and Julie's lover) arrives to take care of some of Patrice's notes. Olivier still cares for Julie very much and is worried about her well being. Julie makes love to him one last time before leaving without another word.

Julie moves into a flat in Paris, hoping to live anonymously and without attachment. However, this is not as easy as it seems – the more she flees the feelings of loss and sorrow for her husband and child, the more they surface tangentially. And despite her attempt to live unassumingly, Julie finds out that it is that trait that endears people to her.

Watching this film is very much like seeing Chagall's stained glass window at the U.N. come to life. As the first of Krzysztof Kieslowski's celebration to the French tricolor, Blue represents “liberty” Ironically, it is this precise concept that imprisons Julie. By sidestepping the avalanche of sadness caused by losing those she loves, Julie thinks she has liberated herself Juliette Binoche's performance is very serene, she maintains a Buddhist-like neutrality throughout most of the film, rarely showing extremes of emotion. (Another eastern allusion: she is shunning all attachment because of the “trap” that comes with it.)

Blue is a very visual film that relies on very little cinematic trickery to make it's point. Slawomir Idziak's cinematography is very painterly, but doesn't resort to broad, bombastic strokes to portray emotion. Kieslowski also knows how to use a film's score to emphasize his points, the film “blacks out” and fills with Van Den Budenmayers “Funeral Music” when Julie is confronted with her sorrow. It's nice to see a director use a fine brush on his cinematic canvas instead of sloppy euphemisms.

Line of the Movie: “Now I have only one thing left to do: nothing.”

Five stars. No animals were harmed during the making of this.