Three Colors: Blue

You've always got to hold onto something. (A Street Musician in "Blue")

Krzysztof Kieslowski's final series of films were "The Three Colors Trilogy", the greatest of all trilogies. As with "The Decalogue", the idea to do a trilogy based on the three colors of the French flag came from his co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz. The idea was to take the symbolism of each color (Blue=liberty, White=equality, Red=fraternity)and base a film on them. However like how he based "The Decalogue" on one of the Ten Commandments, his ideas for these themes were more abstract, and philosophical.

The trilogy begins with "Blue", based on the idea of liberty. Kieslowski's concept isn't the political kind of liberty the French flag suggests, but a personal kind, basically he's asking the great philosophical question, can a person truly be free?

"Blue" is the story of Julie (Juliet Binoche) who is the one survivor of a car accident that killed her composer husband and young daughter. While recuperating at the hospital, Julie attempts suicide with some pills she steals, but realizes she cannot do it. Insteady, she decides to get on with her life by giving up her past. She leaves her house making sure all her servants are cared for, and gives up all of her possessions wiping the slate clean. Her husband was composing music that was to be played in a ceremony for the Unification of Europe, she was his close collaborator and takes what she believes is the last copy of the music and throws it in a garbage truck.

Julie finds a new apartment away from anyone who would know her, the one thing she keeps is a blue mobile, something that perhaps is a reminder of her daughter. The mobile is the only thing from her past that she hangs in her new apartment.

The idea of liberty Kieslowski takes is the thought of having someone who wishes to be free of her past without any reminders, but is that actually possible? Julie is a woman who chooses a life of solitude after her husband and daughter die, but she can't help but becoming involved in the lives of the people around her. One of the most important relationships she makes is with a prostitute who lives in her apartment. After Julie declines signing a petition by her building to throw the loose woman out, the two become friends.

Another complication begins when Julie finds out her husband had a mistress, who is pregnant with his child, then there is the re-appearance of his music for the unification of Europe that she thought was destroyed. All these experiences are ways to prod Julie back to life. Kieslowski seems to be saying that in order for Julie to exist in the world, she can never be fully free from her past. But Kieslowski is saying this is not a bad thing, "Blue" is mostly about grief, and Julie's reluctance to participate in its ritual. The things and people she encounters are ways to remind her that life goes on and she must choose to be a part of it in order to survive.

All through the film there are moments where we feel Julie is repressing her grief, and Kieslowski avoids cliche by keeping her mourning intimate and quiet. Julie never sheds a tear or cries out in anger. Kieslowski uses more cinematic means at his disposal such as showing Julie rubbing her fist against a stone wall, perhaps suggesting her want to feel something painful or to feel alive. Another poignant moment comes when Julie is sitting by the fire destroying remnants from her purse that remind her of her family. In her purse she sees a piece of blue candy which probably belonged to her daughter. Kieslowski uses the candy as a substitute for Julie's tears as we see her devouring it almost as a way to stop her from crying out.

Like all of Kieslowski's films, "Blue" is beautiful to look at, here he uses the same cinematographer he used in "The Double Life of Veronique", and of course it's easy to see his blue motif throughout the film as he does with white and red in the later films. Kieslowski even alludes to the rest of the trilogy here by using The Unification of Europe music. In a way he is unifying Europe with these three films as they take place all over Europe; Blue=France, White=Poland, Red=Geneva.

At the end of "Blue", Julie doesn't get the freedom she hopes for, but Kieslowski seems to be saying she's happier without it. By choosing to be connected to her past, she is able to get on with her life, and she is able to grieve. "Blue" becomes less a movie about liberty, and more one about healing.