Rent Three Colours: Blue (1993)

Blue For Freedom - Three Colours: Blue review by CP Customer

I saw Three Colour Blue, many years ago and watching it again recently I found that it was as emotional as all those years ago! Juliette Binoche who plays the part of a woman whose husband, and daughter die in a car crash finds a way to overcome her loss through simple things, and she is even able to take in the fact that her husband was having a relationship with another woman! Juliette eventually accepts the fact that her husband's music must outlive him.

An Amazing Drama - Three Colours: Blue review by GI

A truly absorbing drama, an example of cinema as art and a film that is complex, literally astounding visually, in its performances and and depth. This is a film focused on grief, liberation and emotional freedom with a central performance from Juliette Binoche that is superb and riveting. She plays Julie, who loses her husband, a famous composer, and her young daughter in a car wreck. She attempts to withdraw from her previous life by living in solitude in a poor Paris suburb. She appears to harbour a secret about her husband's work and tries to avoid her past which creeps inevitably back to draw her into facing life again. It's such an absorbing film with a brilliant musical score, masterful direction from Krzysztof Kieslowski in which he provides a rich symbolism of Julie's emotional state for example in the use of the colour blue to represent her being forced to face her life above and beyond her attempts at withdrawal. A film in which I found myself reminded of my passion for cinema. An absolute must-see.

Deep Blue - Three Colours: Blue review by Steve

The first of Krzysztof Kieslowski's three colours trilogy, which reflects on the ideals of the French revolution as symbolised by the tricolour; liberty, equality, fraternity. The concept has always felt tenuous to me... though the three films are clearly linked, and they individually and collectively explore the interconnectedness of our lives.

And this involves a spiritual dimension. The wife of famous musician loses her husband and daughter in a car crash and enters an extended period of shock. So her normal sense of interdependence goes into stasis. This is more profoundly felt rather than spoken, through Kieslowski's skilful manipulation of all the cinematic tools....

And this includes the use of visual expressionism, as when screen is occasionally saturated in blue. Though this seems to imply the widow's numbness and subliminal desire for rebirth rather than anything to do with liberty. Of the creatives, credit is most due to Zbigniew Preisner whose orchestral score is central to the narrative.

Plus there's a signature role for Juliette Binoche as the bereaved mother/wife; a harrowing and exposing performance, completed by that heartbreaking final closeup. It's a deeply emotional experience and if Blue doesn't- for me- quite make the same exhilarating spiritual connection as Red (1994), then I believe for others it will.