Three Colors: Blue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Three Colours: Blue | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Krzysztof Kieślowski |
| Produced by | Marin Karmitz |
| Written by | Krzysztof Piesiewicz Krzysztof Kieślowski Agnieszka Holland Edward Zebrowski |
| Starring | Juliette Binoche Benoît Régent |
| Music by | Zbigniew Preisner |
| Cinematography | Sławomir Idziak |
| Editing by | Jacques Witta |
| Distributed by | Miramax (USA) |
| Release date(s) | January 10, 1993 |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Language | French |
| IMDb profile | |
 |
| Three Colors |
Blue is the English language title of the 1993 French language film, Trois Couleurs: Bleu. Co-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.
Contents |
[edit] Primary cast
- Juliette Binoche: "Julie Vignon-de Courcy"
- Benoît Régent: "Olivier Benoit"
- Charlotte Very: "Lucille"
- Emmanuelle Riva: "Madame Vignon" (Julie's mother)
- Florence Pernel: "Sandrine"
- Guillaume De Tonquédec: "Serge"
[edit] Plot synopsis
Blue is a complex psychological study of emotional liberty. It is set in Paris, where 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. For the remainder of the film, Julie devotes herself to mental suicide, disassociating herself from all past memories and distancing herself from former friendships. She destroys the notes for her late husband's last commissioned, though unfinished, work, a piece for the celebration of the creation of the European Union. Despite her desires to shrink into nothingness, life in Paris forces Julie to confront certain elements of her past that she would rather not face. She falls in love with Olivier Benoit, her late husband's aide. She discovers her late husband was having an affair, and the woman, Sandrine, is carrying his child. As the film ends a question remains: Will Julie complete the music that was, perhaps, always hers?
[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] Analysis
Visually, the director uses many techniques to portray the sense of loss and Julie's internal conflict. As Julie watches the funeral for her husband and daughter from her hospital bed, the dark shadow of her finger caresses the tiny casket on the screen. Once out of hospital, she begins to swim alone in a darkened pool and each time the pain overwhelms her, she rushes to swim, pushing herself to the limit, trying to force away the memories. The key to understanding the story is the meaning of its color which Kieślowski said in its modern context does not treat liberty in a social or political way, but as the liberty of life itself.
Like the other films in the trilogy, Blue makes frequent visual allusions to its title: in addition to blue filters and blue lighting, many small, inconspicuous objects are blue. Blue light, representing Julie's past, creeps in around her at several points throughout the film, accompanied by the haunting musical theme around which the film revolves. The film also includes several references to the other colors in the trilogy. In one scene, children dressed in white bathing suits with red floaters jump into the blue swimming pool while in another, Julie is seen accidentally entering a courtroom where the main Polish character of White is pleading his innocence. Red is seen in Paris's red-light district near Pigalle.
A number of critics rank this as one of the great motion pictures of all time. 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." 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."
[edit] See Also
This film is first film of trilogy Three Colors.
- Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993), first film of trilogy.
- Trzy kolory: Biały (1994), second film of trilogy.
- Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994), third and last film of trilogy.
