Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993) - film review

After the death of her husband, a famous composer, and her daughter in a car accident, a young woman, Julie, decides to start a new life for herself.  Having instructed her lawyers to sell her home, she quits her boyfriend and moves into an apartment in an unfamiliar area of Paris.   But, however she may try to rid herself of her past, she is unable to break free of it...

The first instalment in Polish film director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s acclaimed trilogy Bleu, Blanc, Rouge (taken from the three colours of the French flag) uses the subject of Liberté (Freedom) to provide the basis for a visually entrancing psychological drama.

The film stars Juliette Binoche, who is currently rated by many as the best living actress in France.  Certainly, her performance in this film is something quite remarkable.  Although she is barely off screen for a moment, her appearance is constantly captivating, making any amount of dialogue superfluous (which is just as well since the film is pretty bereft of dialogue).  Aided by Slawomir Idziak’s sensuous photography, Binoche appears every bit the liberated woman who quickly realises that the freedom she thinks she has following the death of her husband is a mere illusion.  The coldness of the blue-tinted photography impinges on her physical beauty with heart-rending, tragic effect.

Kieslowski is renowned for the visual style of his films, and this is a prime example (although perhaps not his best).  The film is by any standard a work of art, the mesmerising photographic imagery emphasised by the heady, almost religious character of Zbigniew Preisner’s ever-present music.

The only noticeable fault that the film seems to have is its ending which feels needlessly forced and heavy.  After an effective resolution to the drama, the film suddenly appears to become overwhelmed by its pretensions to artistic brilliance, and this mars an otherwise memorable cinematographic experience.

© James Travers 2001

See also:
Trois Couleurs: Blanc
Trois Couleurs: Rouge

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