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Blue (Three Colors Trilogy)

Blue (Three Colors Trilogy)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Luminous Color and Sound of Transcendent Humanity
Review: This Krzysztof Kieslowski masterpiece dwarfs the other two parts of its film trilogy [the world's longest Polish joke: "WHITE", and even the excellent "RED" which concludes the series.] In depth and impact it can only be compared to its prequel, "THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE" which the director would probably have named "AMBER" if he'd forseen more of what actually became a quartet. In each film, a single color dominates the camera and repeatedly re-establishes compelling mood and direction. But even more than color is the music. Zbignew Preisner's powerful score functions as a central character in each drama, and not always second to the lead actor. Thematic references to a single composer, with metaphysical overtones, are coupled with ingenious visual motifs to weave all four films into a complex unity [the central message in each story is stated as a single throw- away line by a minor passing character; and the same little old lady pushes a bottle into the same trash bin] to give a subtle dream-like quality to the enterprise. The same court room scene occurs in each picture, as seen by different players, and the multi-languages of Europe are entwined to give added meaning. In BLEU, the numinous silences of Juliette Binoche's character are literally stunning [musicians say "It is the rests which make the music!"] and when they are symphonically resolved at the climax of this film, it is inspiring to the point of tears. We have absorbed this cinematic experience at least ten times. Every one of them better than the last.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: It's ok, no big deal
Review: Actually I find the whole series, RED, WHITE, BLUE, to be very disappointing. I love foreign films, and had really looked forward to seeing this trilogy, but, alas, disappontment.Besides Juliette Binoche, there's not much to remember about this film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Minimal Blatancy
Review: This film is astoundong for one main reason. Kieslowski knows when to stop. The minimal, and therefore calculated hand, behind this film transcends the film beyond narrative to allegorical. On the explicit level, this is in fact a commentary on Liberty. This is evident in the woman regressing back to a girl and the repression of a past. This raises the question of the true essense of "Liberty". This I think was Kieslowskis goal, and he succeeded. However, the allegory continues to more abstraction. He (and Binoche) are able to place an essence on a colour. When one delves into the purest components, the abstract icons, of existence the result is calming and beautiful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: many shades of Blue
Review: Much has been written about Kieslowski's 'Blue', indeed on the whole trilogy, but to me this film is amazing on a number of levels. Firstly what should be a bleak and somber movie becomes a liberating and ultimately uplifting experience. Binoche's prescence is amazing almost etheral, she exudes a quiet confidence while always remaining wholly vulnerable. Her performance, like Kieslowski's assured direction, is flawless. Blue (like the entire trilogy) has always been seen as a model of pan-european film, a worthy one it is too.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Binoche is stunning even with minimal story
Review: This movie is described as a mystery, but it should have been billed as a film about dispair and grief. Juliette Binoche is so stunning that she makes you forget that there isn't much of a plot. The direction is a work of art and is more innovative than anything you'll see in a Hollywood production. Beautiful use of lighting, music, and the color blue. Also, if you enjoyed Juliette Binoche in this movie you might want to rent "The Horseman On the Roof".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Grief and Grieving
Review: This film is about grief and the grieving process, told more with images than words. A woman loses her husband and child in a car accident and she loses herself in the pain. Pushing away her life, she hides from what it was and who she was but pieces intersect and draw her back in. This film is a masterpiece on the topic of grief. If you have ever lost someone you love and haven't been able to cry, this will break you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best films ever made
Review: Juliette Binoche dominates the screen in this story of a woman who drastically changes her life after her husband, a famous composer, and their daughter are killed in a car crash. There are so many grace notes here: The play of light over Binoche's face in several scenes, the hypnotic blue of the swimming pool where she goes to forget her past, a sugar cube soaking up coffee in a Paris cafe. And the musical score that drives the film is nothing short of majestic. Kieslowski was working at the top of his form when he made the Three Colours trilogy. He is talent is greatly missed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: touching story of the fragility of our circumstances
Review: Enjoyable if melancholy movie. Binoche plays a woman who, in a tragic accident, loses her roles as mother and wife. It is apparent that it is the loss of motherhood that numbs her most as her foremost belonging in the aftermath is a decoration from her child's room. However, it is strongly suggested that she plans to protect her famous husband's reputation by squelching her own tremendous talent. How she comes to slowly make a new life for herself follows.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: How can pain be so good????
Review: No film has ever made me cry, until this one. Juliette Binoche manages to successfully create sorrow and pain with little more than a blink of the eye. Kieslowski's use of the colour blue permeates every aspect of the filming. You even see it when it isn't there.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A brilliant shade of "Blue"
Review: Director Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Blue" is the first of a trilogy of films which take their title from the colors of the french flag (blue, white, and red) and their theme from the French motto of "liberty, equality, fraternity." In this achingly beautiful interpretation, liberty comes as the result of loss.

The film opens in a shroud of bluish fog, as Julie (Juliette Binoche), her husband Patrice and their young daughter are on a car trip. Because of the fog, the Alfa Romeo continues to go straight when the road curves, and the car collides with a tree. Only Julie survives.

Although her bandages and bruises disappear rather quickly, Julie's emotions take much longer to heal. The rest of the movie is an eloquent, moving look at how she deals with the aftermath of her loss, from the seemingly trivial annoyance of finding mice in her new apartment to the discovery that her husband had kept a mistress for years.

She tries to repress her emotions by freeing herself from her past: she sells the contents of her country estate and moves to a small apartment in a section of Paris where no one knows her, signing the lease with her maiden name. All she brings with her, besides books and clothes, is a chandelier of dripping blue crystals, a prism which refracts the past.

As one would guess from the title, the color blue washes over this movie, tinting it with melancholy. But more striking than the film's use of color is its music. Patrice was a famous composer who was writing a concerto to celebrate the unification of Europe at the time of his death. Although Julie destroys his notes after his death, his secretary had made a copy and sent it to his partner, Olivier (Benoit Regent), who is now working to complete the unfinished symphony.

Throughout the movie, whenever Julie's emotions well up within her, strains of the concerto flood the movie -- the screen goes black so the viewer, too, focuses only on the music, which seems to express at once both the anguish and release that Julie feels.

Through Kieslowski's cinematography and Binoche's subtle facial expressions, the viewer is immersed in the understated emotion of the film -- an immersion that does not end when the credits roll, for the film leaves a few issues unresolved that make it, like its main character, such a captivating enigma. END


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