Three Colors: Blue

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Three Colours: Blue

©MK2 1993
Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Produced by Marin Karmitz
Written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Agnieszka Holland
Edward Zebrowski
Starring Juliette Binoche
Benoît Régent
Emmanuelle Riva
Florence Pernel
Guillaume De Tonquédec
Music by Zbigniew Preisner
Cinematography Sławomir Idziak
Editing by Jacques Witta
Distributed by Miramax (USA)
Release date(s) January 10, 1993
Running time 100 min.
Language French
IMDb profile

Three Colours: Blue (French: Trois Couleurs: Bleu, Polish: Trzy kolory. Niebieski) is a 1993 French film written, produced and directed by the acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Blue is the first in the Three Colors trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals; it is followed by White and Red.

According to Kieślowski, the subject of the film is liberty, specifically emotional liberty, rather than its social or political meaning.[1] Set in Paris, it depicts Julie, a woman whose husband and child are killed in a car accident. Suddenly set free from her familial bonds, Julie attempts to cut herself off from everything and live in isolation from her former ties, but finds that she cannot free herself from human connections.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Julie, wife of the famous composer Patrice de Courcy, must cope with the death of her husband and daughter in an automobile accident she herself survives. While recovering in the hospital, Julie attempts suicide by overdose, but cannot bear to go through with it and spits out the pills before swallowing them. After being released from the hospital, Julie closes up the house she lived in with her family and takes an apartment in Paris without telling anyone, or keeping any clothing or objects from her old life, except for a chandelier of blue beads. For the remainder of the film, Julie disassociates herself from all past memories and distances herself from former friendships. She destroys the notes for her late husband's last commissioned, though unfinished, work: a piece celebrating "the unity of Europe", commissioned by the Council of Europe. Despite her desire to live anonymously and alone, life in Paris forces Julie to confront elements of her past that she would rather not face, including a male friend who is in love with her, and the fact that she is suspected to be the true author of her husband's music. At the end of the film, she discovers that her late husband was having an affair, and the woman, Sandrine, is carrying his child. This provokes her to begin a relationship with a new lover. In the final sequence, the Unity of Europe piece is played, and we see images of all the people Julie has affected by her actions.

[edit] Production

Blue was an international co-production between the French companies CED Productions, Eurimages, France 3 Cinéma and MK2 Productions, the Swiss company CAB Productions and the Polish company Studio Filmowe TOR.

[edit] Style

Like the other films in the trilogy, Blue makes frequent visual allusions to its title: numerous scenes are shot with blue filters or blue lighting, and many objects are blue. When Julie thinks about the musical score that she has tried to destroy, blue light overwhelms the screen. The film also includes several references to the colors of the tricolor that inspired Kieślowski's trilogy: several scenes are dominated by red light, and in one scene, children dressed in white bathing suits with red floaters jump into the blue swimming pool. Another scene features a link with the next film in the trilogy: Julie is seen accidentally entering a courtroom where Karol, the Polish main character of White, is being divorced by Dominique, his estranged French wife.

[edit] Responses

Blue was admired by many critics. Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle said: "Blue is a movie that engages the mind, challenges the senses, implores a resolution, and tells, with aesthetic grace and formal elegance, a good story and a political allegory."[2] Michael Hoshall of the Boulder Daily Camera said, "Juliette Binoche is luminous in her performance as a woman who comes to realize her genuine self-worth as a musician and human being."[citation needed]

[edit] Principal cast

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Three Colors: Blue (Soundtrack)

[edit] Awards

  • Venice Film Festival, 1993: Best Film and Juliette Binoche, Best Actress, Best Cinematography: Sławomir Idziak
  • Cesar Award, 1993: Best Actress: Juliette Binoche, Best Sound, Best Film Editing
  • Goya Awards (Spain's Academy Awards): Best European Film

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Three Colors: Blue, Bonus Features: Commentary by Anne Insdorf, A Look at "Blue".
  2. ^ Baumgarten, Marjorie. "Calendar: Film Listings - Blue", The Austin Chronicle, March 18, 1994. Accessed May 21, 2007.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
The Story of Qiu Ju		 Golden Lion winner
1993
tied with Short Cuts		 Succeeded by
Vive L'Amour tied with
Before the Rain
v • d • e
Films directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski
1960s

The Face (1966) • The Office (1966) • The Tram (1966) • Concert of Requests (1967) • The Photograph (1968) • From the City of Łódź (1968)
1970s

I Was a Soldier (1970) • Factory (1970) • Workers '71: Nothing About Us Without Us (1971) • Before a Rail (1971) • Between Wrocław and Zielona Góra (1972) • Principles of Safety and Hygiene in a Copper Mine (1972) • Gospodarze (1972) • Pedestrian Subway (1973) • First Love (1974) • Curriculum Vitae (1975) • Personnel (1975) • Hospital (1976) • The Scar (1976) • The Calm (1976) • I Don't Know (1977) • From a Night Porter's Point of View (1978) • Camera Buff (1979)
1980s

Railway Station (1980) • Talking Heads (1980) • Short Working Day (1981) • Blind Chance (1981) • No End (1985) • The Decalogue (1988) • A Short Film About Killing (1988) • A Short Film About Love (1989)
1990s