Having finished Kiewsloski's Decalogue, I turned my attention to his penultimate work, the Three Colors Trilogy. The three films are entitled Blue, White and Red in reference to the three colors in the French flag. Also, each of these films is about one of the three concepts of the French motto (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity). This film is one of those experiences that shows more than most the unique nature of cinema, and why so much can be expressed with a movie camera that simply cannot be expressed any other way.
Juliette Binoche plays Julie, a woman who loses her husband and young daughter in a car accident. Her husband is a famous composer who is writing a symphonic piece to commemorate the unification of Europe. When they die, she attempts to completely separate herself from her past and from any emotional attachments. This proves to become more and more difficult as we get to know her. We come to find out that she is a compassionate person, and that she will not be able to abandon humanity, even those people who have hurt her.
Kiewsloski does some wonderful things here with photography and with soundtrack. This is a total cinematic experience. The production design, the music, the acting, and the writing all feed the theme and tone of the film wonderfully. Take, for example, many of the scenes shot in the swimming pool. The water itself is blue. Also, the pool can symbolize liberty, because a person in it is not bound by gravity in the traditional sense. Julie escapes to the pool because she sees it as a place of liberty. But even there she cannot totally escape. In the end, the film grapples with the nature of liberty. Are we truly at liberty when we have no attachments to others? Or do we find true freedom in serving others? The film does not answer these questions, but allows us to grapple with them.
There are also scenes that are simply a pleasure to look at, or scenes that give us oddities that we can contemplate. I am thrilled that I have discovered Kiewsloski's work. I love finding a new world to explore, and his films are giving me that.
