Rating: 
Summary: The most under-rated of the 'Three Colours' trilogy.
Review: 'White' is a refreshing improvement on its portentous predecessor 'Blue', a dazzling tragicomedy about an impotent Polish hairdresser, Karol, who is unceremoniously divorced by his Parisian wife, thrown out onto the streets without a sou, a possport or much French. Busking on the Metro, he meets a fellow Pole, the lugubrious Mikolaj, who smuggles him back to their home country. Determined to exact revenge on his wife, Karol begins to trade very profitably on the black market.Maybe it's because Kieslowski is back in Poland, but 'White' is a much 'lighter' film than its predecessor, not in the sense of insubstantial, but in the director's relaxing the grip of his elaborate style, allowing his effects emanate from his story, his wonderful characters and the Polish landscape overlooking the post-communist embrace of (crooked) Western capitalism. Though still glossy compared to his earlier films, the relentless striving for poetic preciosity that marred 'Blue' is checked. Perhaps the return to Poland allowed Kieslowski to make an authentically East European film, a kind of absurdist shaggy dog story, its black comedy aching with anguish. The almost-ridiculous, little-man clown-hero could have bumbled from Gogol or Kafka (or silent cinema?), rumpled, besuited, a bit roly-poly, self-important despite being victim to a fate with a very sick, humiliating sense of humour - his admiring gaze at one of the film's many pigeons ends with dirt sliming down his shirt, just before a court appearance; the bank teller who cuts his frozen credit card is suitably, bureaucratically, inexorably faceless. The film's comic tension emerges from the disparity between the character's unintentional individuality, his being made seem eccentric because of the unfortunate things inflicted on him, and others' reaction to him; and his dehumanisation, both comically, as he is smuggled by suitcase to Poland, a devalued commodity fetish, only to be purloined by airport thieves, and, more bleakly, in the hardening of his soul as he becomes more successful at being a capitalist - the ironic message of 'White' seems to be that money and power is the key to sexual potency. Karol's natural self was deemed a social failure, so he has to play a part, even if it risks killing his soul, even if he must play a corpse, become his own ghost though he tries to assert the primacy of his body. His progress is symbolised in the film by the importance of language (translating, interpreting and misunderstanding), with epiphany only possibly with its transcendence in a physical, non-verbal communication, perhaps the human equivalent of what Kieslowski tried to do in his films, reach viewers through pure cinema. Like 'Blue', and all his films, 'White' is structured around recurring and reconfigured imagery - birds, suitcases, glass, statues, combs, 'lucky' coins, snow etc., - but, again, because they belong to the story's world, rather than being imposed on it by a style, they seem much more effective. 'White' isn't perfect - the plot is damaged by nagging implausibilities, and the film certainly dips in the second half, but that's inevitable after the fleet comic energy preceeding it, swept along by the tango melodies of Zbigniew Preisner's score, a welcome contrast to the bombast of 'Blue', and again more rooted to place. Once again, Kieslowski's irony, his play with viewpoint and fantasy, suggests we don't take his images or plot developments at face value.
Rating: 
Summary: The power games we play
Review: A story about the power games we play, it pits Karol Karol, a polish hairdresser, against his ex-wife Dominique. The story begins in France, where Dominique is on home ground and controls the situation : she begins setting fire to her own salon, getting the police on his tail. Left with nothing, Karol finds a kindred spirit and manages to smuggle himself back to Poland in a suitcase. There, he works at his father's salon and manages to get back on track. The theme of equality, second word of the French slogan, is evident here perhaps as a statement that equality does not reflect reality, and that we are engaged constantly in a search for the upper hand, and that life is for the opportunist. This may be seen as either pessimistic or itself an opportunity, depending on your view of life.
Rating: 
Summary: .
Review: A very interesting and rather strange film that suffers greatly from a confusing, silly ending. I feel I gained something from the movie, it has some fascinating characters and moments, but there are distinct flaws, or if not flaws, things that just didn't sit right aesthetically, or in any other sense.
Rating:
Summary: LETDOWN BUT STILL LOVELY
Review: After Bleu, which is the first installment of Kieslowski's Bleu, Blanc, Rouge loosely connected trilogy, I expected something better than White. I guess I just should not get my hopes up! First of all Julie Delpy is one of the two stars of this film which naturally creates a need for me not to like it. And she did not disappoint. Her cruel character is horrible in this film, which was of course deliberate, but somehow I just did not like her in the role even if she was effective. She divorces her Polish hairdresser husband, played very convincingly by Zbigniew Zamachowski, because he is supposedly impotent. She also drives him out of France and taunts him with her other sexual exploits. He eventually returns to his native Poland after he has by chance met another fellow Polish national who offers him a job. All he has to do is kill a man who is too weak to commit suicide and he will receive a large sum of money. In the meantime, Zamachowski works during his days and eventually steals some business plans from someone and becomes a very wealthy man. He and the Polish man he met before leaving France are in business together. Then the day comes that the man tells Zamachowski that the man wants to die. When Z. arrives to do the deed he discovers that the man wanting to commit suicide is one and the same man as his business partner and friend. He agrees to shoot him, but he shoots him with a blank in case the man changes his mind. In the end, Zamachowski decides to stage his own death and leave all the money to his former wife. Delpy arrives for the mock funeral and then Zamachowski meets her in her hotel room, has sex with her and leaves her in the morning. The police arrive the following morning and arrest her for his murder. Perfect revenge, but overall it seemed a bit... petty. However, do buy the soundtrack to this film.
Rating:
Summary: Good Imagery, Some Slow Moments
Review: An intriguing story about divorce and revenge. Several interesting twists and turns in the story. The bleak white scenery fits the film to a tee. As far as the story goes, the beginning is pretty intriguing. The true effects of a break up are certainly dramatized. Its quite poignant how the man's life took a nosedive upon his wife leaving him. Nonetheless, our hero perserveres and many twists and turns later, he has his revenge but later develops mixed feelings regarding his actions. Why couldn't things have worked out? There are some slow moments particularly in the middle of the film. Allegedly these scenes connect to the overall plot of our once fallen hero but its delivered in such a lethargic matter that you really lose interest in the film and just want it to get to the point and end. Nonetheless, the imagery is captivating enough to make the film somewhat enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Good Imagery, Some Slow Moments
Review: An intriguing story about divorce and revenge. Several interesting twists and turns in the story. The bleak white scenery fits the film to a tee. As far as the story goes, the beginning is pretty intriguing. The true effects of a break up are certainly dramatized. Its quite poignant how the man's life took a nosedive upon his wife leaving him. Nonetheless, our hero perserveres and many twists and turns later, he has his revenge but later develops mixed feelings regarding his actions. Why couldn't things have worked out? There are some slow moments particularly in the middle of the film. Allegedly these scenes connect to the overall plot of our once fallen hero but its delivered in such a lethargic matter that you really lose interest in the film and just want it to get to the point and end. Nonetheless, the imagery is captivating enough to make the film somewhat enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: Brilliant eh? See this movie. Please, please see this movie. It's very very good and not any kind of a weak link. Don't expect it to be Red because it isn't. Beautiful visual artistry.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful performance by Julie Delpy
Review: Delpy's performance in "White" is one of the best of her career, perhaps only eclipsed by her role in "Before Sunrise". If her performance isin fact more impressive than the one she gave in "Sunrise", it's because, unlike "Sunrise", she has such limited time to establish her character, Dominique. Delpy's difficult job is to find some small dose of sympathy in the hatefuly vengeful character she plays. There is a very brief moment where Karol tickles Dominique with her hair while she is in the middle of throwing him out. For a very brief moment Dominique's cold exterior melts and we see the beautiful young woman that Karol fell in love with. This picture is recomended if, for no other reason, than to see Delpy's brilliant performance.
Rating:
Summary: Equality in terms of knowledge in one's own country
Review: Equality-the state or instance of being equal; especially, the state of enjoying equal rights, as political, economic, and social.
"What about equality?" demands Polish émigré and hairdresser Karol Karol to the judge during his divorce hearings. Was the judge not hearing his case just because he couldn't speak French? Karol's French wife, the lovely Dominique, has filed divorce charges against him because he can't perform in bed. This leaves Karol in a pinch, as Dominique has tossed him and his suitcase out into the street, having been awarded the house and bank account. Furthermore, it does fit the theme of equality in the second of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Tricoleurs trilogy, Blanc (French), or Bialy (Polish). Dominique has the advantage of knowing French and French law. Karol doesn't. The only thing is for him to return back to Poland, which he does, in a suitcase!
Fortunately, he has his brother Jurek, running his hairdressing salon, and Mikolaj (pron. Mikolai), a fellow Pole who has promised him a job, to kill someone who wants to take his own life but can't, for which he'll pay handsomely. Yet Karol tells his target that we all want less pain in our lives and the technique he uses to dissuade his target is ingenious. I mean, can one see Karol, who's a nice, maybe too nice a guy, as a killer?
The colour symbolism of white works here as did blue for the first film in the trilogy. Karol and Mikolaj run around in the snow as if they were kids. From that point on, the white symbolizes a clean slate, where Karol's comeback begins. Much of the scenery in Poland is against an overcast gray-white sky, but that provides the backdrop for his rejuvenation. He's back home, where he becomes knowledgeable about the new post-Communist Poland and other things he learns to make it as a businessman. And it is there that he decides to get back at his ex-wife. Personally, I thought he was too lenient with her.
Zbigniew Zamachowski shines as Karol, as does Janusz Gajos as the gloomy Mikolaj. Julie Delpy is pretty but unsympathetic as Dominique, which was the point of the movie. The vicious way she humiliates Karol that drives him back to Poland, most men would consider unforgivable. Yet she's like a bookend, figuring in the beginning and final parts of White. Oh, and Juliette Binoche, star of Blue, has a brief wordless cameo in the beginning, where she can be seen at the rear of the court chambers talking to the guards while Karol's hearing is in progress.
To the extent that being at home in one's country and knowing the laws and people there makes people equal to one another, but only within the confines of their borders, which is a stark contrast to Blue, where one of the subplots involved a concerto for European unification.
A good film to be sure, with a protagonist to root for, but Libertie, Revanche, Fraternite?
Rating:
Summary: Fade to Dream
Review: Excellent! This film begins with harsh reality, progresses to a harsher reality, and then devolves into surrealism. The final scene is one of the most unexpected and disturbing in all film. Keep watching until the end and then ask yourself: "Was it a dream, or a nightmare; and who was doing the dreaming, Karol or his wife?"
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