Binoche is brilliant

Rating: 8/10 (27 May 2012)

Blue is the first of Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy. It was followed by White and and Red, the colors of the French flag. Julie(Juliette Binoche) is married to a world famous classical music composer who dies along with their daughter in a car accident. She responds by almost committing suicide with pills but instead she leaves the hospital and takes an apartment by herself without telling anyone where she is going. She speaks with her senile mother on the phone, but her mother is confused and believes that her daughter is her sister.
Julie destroys her husbands last composition, which was to celebrate the end of the cold war and European unity. There are hints that she actually wrote the piece. A former assistant of her husband, Olivier, is in love with her and announces on television that he will try to finish the final composition.
Julie, meanwhile, discovers that her husband was having an affair. She tracks down the mistress, Sandrine, who is pregnant with the love child. This leads to an extremely unusual finale. I will not give it away; but it is well worth watching for Binoche's brilliant performance.