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Blue is the English language title of the 1993 French language film, Trois Couleurs: Bleu (available with English subtitles). Co-written, produced, and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Blue is the first in the Three Colors trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals, followed by White and Red.  Sleeve for Three Colors: Blue
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Plot synopsisBlue is a complex psychological study of emotional liberty. It is set in Paris, where Julie, wife of the famous composer Patrice de Courcy, must cope with his and their five-year-old daughter's death in an automobile accident, one that she wishes she too had not survived. While recovering in hospital, her initial thought is to take her own life by swallowing a handful of painkillers stolen from the hospital's medicine chest. From that point on, her days are devoted to committing mental suicide, by disassociating herself from all past memories and getting rid of all reminders including the destruction of her late husband's last commissioned work, a piece for the celebration of the European Union. Despite her desires to shrink into nothingness, merely existing forces Julie to confront certain elements of her past that she would rather not face. Along the way, she befriends Lucille, a prostitute/stripper who lives downstairs from her; falls in love with Olivier, her late husband's aide; and helps Sandrine, her late husband's mistress of whom she knew nothing and who is carrying his child. AnalysisVisually, the director uses many techniques to portray the sense of loss and Julie's internal conflict. As Julie watches the funeral for her husband and daughter from her hospital bed, the dark shadow of her finger caresses the tiny casket on the screen. Once out of hospital, she begins to swim alone in a darkened pool and each time the pain overwhelms her, she rushes to swim, pushing herself to the limit, trying to force away the memories. The key to understanding the story is the meaning of its color which Kieślowski said in its modern context does not treat liberty in a social or political way, but as the liberty of life itself. Like the other films in the trilogy, Blue makes frequent visual allusions to its title: in addition to blue filters and blue lighting, many small, inconspicuous objects are blue. Blue light, representing Julie's past, creeps in around her at several points throughout the film, accompanied by the haunting musical theme around which the film revolves. The words to this theme, taken from 1 Corinthians 13:1–13 of the Bible, suggest the means by which Julie will heal and return to the land of the living: Though I speak with the tongues of angels, |
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