Rent Three Colours: Blue (1993)

Liberty? - Three Colours: Blue review by HM

Well it is supposed to be about liberty; one of the French revolutions' 3 ideals of equality liberty and fraternity. However, there are issues of equality too as the female character (Binoche) is widowed and struggles to liberate herself from her past. Was she always in the shadow of her husband a famous composer? Was her talent stifled by his? Emotionally intense, the film doesn't let you off the hook as you experience her misery and pain almost to the point of claustrophobia.

I enjoyed it immensely but some may find it too grim to be entertaining. A heavy drama!

Beautiful - Three Colours: Blue review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Hard to belive this is almost 30 years old and is still an astounding piece of cinema. Binoche plays Julie who loses her husband and daughter in a car crash and cuts herself off completely from life. He was a famous composer working on a symphony for the reunification of Europe (Its set in 1991) but she destroys all the manuscripts , moves out of the chateau and rents a chilly apartment in Paris. She has a brief fling with her husbands best friend Regent (Benoit) but tells him he will never see her again. She tries to move on but the music will not leave her in peace as fragments keep intruding as it’s implied that she was responsible for a lot of the work. She befriends a local hooker who she saves from eviction and visits her mother who has dementia and one night sees Regent on tv saying he will try and finish the final symphony as the publisher kept a copy. Julie makes contact with Regent and discovers her husband had a long term mistress who is carrying his child - he died without knowing and all these events begin to see Julie begin to re-engage with life. It’s one if the finest examples of loss, grief and redemption on screen - Binoche gives one of her finest performances underpaying all the emotion which is more profound used this way. Kieslowski uses a series of fades in each scene as the music soars acting as a counterpoint to the events and the final montage as the music is completed is just beautiful. As always with his films the score by Priesner is as important as the visuals……it’s really is a stunning film and as always you wonder if Kieslowski handn’t been taken at 54 just many more works like this he could have made - 5/5

Individual liberty! - Three Colours: Blue review by LB

The theme of this film is liberty, as inspired by the French revolutionaries. I made the mistake of thinking this was political liberty as opposed to individual--the main character (Julie) is attempting to find freedom from her grief after being the sole survivor in a car crash. I found it very uplifting, personally, although it is quite an open ending and things are regularly left up to the viewer.