Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993)

Three Colors: Blue is the first part of Director Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy (don't worry, I can't pronounce it either) on France's national motto: Liberty (blue), Equality (white), and Fraternity (red). Blue is the story of Julie (Juliette Binoche) who loses her husband, an acclaimed European composer, and her young daughter in a car accident. The film's theme of liberty is manifested in Julie's attempt to start life anew free of personal commitments, belongings grief and love. She intends to spiritually commit suicide by withdrawing from the world and living completely independently, anonymously and in solitude in the Parisian metropolis. Despite her intentions, hilarity ensues when people from her former and present life intrude with their own needs. Soon, the reality created by the people who need and care about her, a surprising discovery, and the music around which the film revolves heals Julie and irresistibly draws her back to the land of the living.

Trivia: At one point, we see Julie carrying a box which, as a close-up shows, has prominently written across it the word "blanco", Spanish for white; in the next shot we are looking at her from behind, and she pauses in the street as a man in blue passes her on her left and a woman in red passes her on her right. This is a subtle reference to the structure of the Three Colours trilogy - blue, white, red, in that order, mirroring the French flag. For European TV screenings, the scene where Julie has a cat eat the baby mice was cut. For the shot where Julie scrapes her hand along a stone wall, Juliette Binoche was originally supposed to wear a prosthetic to protect her hand, but it looked too obvious on camera. Binoche felt the scene was important enough that she actually dragged her unprotected hand along the wall, drawing real blood.

It is strange when you think about it, how people interpret colors. In this trilogy Blue stands for liberty, White for equality, and Red for fraternity, as it does in the french flag, where as I also think liberty should be White, courage or passion, Red, and loyalty Blue (as in "true blue friend") . One of the reasons I think that I think this way is based on the American flag. That is until I looked it up. In the American flag White stands for purity and innocence, Red, hardiness and valor, and Blue signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice. On the other hand the Lone Star (state flag of Texas) has Blue as loyalty, White as purity, and Red as bravery. So where did I get Liberty White? I realized that I get that from the Houston Texans football team, their colors are Deep Steel Blue, Battle Red, and...Liberty White. Colors provide us with visual cues to the kind of reactions we should have, let's face it, we are a visual race. To me blue is cold, distant, impersonal. (I will tell you what the other colors mean to me when I review White and Red.) This film does show that side of Julie. She withdraws from society, she moves away, seals her house, gets an apartment and does, as she says in the film "nothing." She just exists, she doesn't try to cultivate any relationships, she stays out of others disputes, she closes herself off so that she can liberate herself from all emotions. The thing is that you can't do that, there will always be people around and they eventually bring her back to reality. If you read the labels below to see what the movie is about (drama, comedy, romance, etc.) you will notice that this fits into the music category, so where is the music? Right here. One of the wonderful things about the film is the music. It really plays a part of Julie's life and is more instrumental in bringing her back then the people she meets are. Her husband was a composer and she is one of the only people who could read his notes and work with his music. After his death she really tries to rid herself of it by destroying his uncompleted masterpiece, but the music always brings her back. When she is on the edge of disappearing into herself, the music always brings her back. The film ends as the music plays, but it isn't finished because she isn't finished with it, but it has brought her back. There are only a hand full of films that I can name where music plays such an integral part of the whole experience, Amadeus, Mr. Holland's Opus, both because the music defines the characters and don't laugh at me, Jaws, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where the music became a character in the movie.