"Three Colors: Blue" qualifies in hallowed category of Cinema that not only entertains but reveals authentic truths about human-nature (both the dark and light).

Rating: 9/10 (6 May 2019)

"Trois couleurs : Bleu" by gifted Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's (who relocated to France) and created this artistically-acclaimed 'Three Colors Trilogy' with "Blue" being the first part reflecting on Liberty (of the personal sort). "Blue" is deeply-complex cinematic-experience, in parts devastating and emotionally-draining but also genuinely-introspective, reflective and non-cliché (i.e. not attempting to present 'easy' answers or Hollywood-type resolutions).
**Spoiler** (for those who have not seen this yet although first theatrical release was in 1993, I saw this much later on DVD a few years back).
The main scenario presents itself early on (within the first 15-minutes or so)..... Julie de Courcy (exquisitely portrayed by Juliette Binoche) loses her husband and 6 year-old daughter to a horrific car-crash (in which Julie was also a passenger, but somehow survived). Julie awakes in a hospital bed in throws of bleakest, deepest-depression (learning that both her daughter and husband have perished)....... and attempts suicide, to no avail.
Once returning home to a large-estate, Julie begins the process of selling-off (sometimes even destroying) everything that 'attaches' herself to her old Life as a wife and mother..... and intends to begin 'anew' with no lingering possessions or reminders of past emotional-connections.
One complicating factor is that Julie's deceased husband Patrice de Courcy happened to be a very prominent Classical Music composer in France and was in the process of creating an important large-scale musical-piece to celebrate the burgeoning 'European-Union' (ironically Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Bleu" was filmed circa1992 just as the 'Cold-War' had ended and a new optimistic sense of both freedom & Unity was in the air in Europe --- looking back circa 2019, this early 1990's idealistic-vision of a unified-democratic Europe feels tragically-ironic indeed in the shadow of tenuous present-Day). It is also revealed that Julie was herself a 'gifted' Music composer and actually has the equal talent-ability to complete her husband's 'Last' great Score (but apparently chooses to destroy it instead?!)
There is much, much more to this story filled with rumination & complexity about paths taken (and not taken) with bravura multi-dimensional performance by Juliette Binoche in an exceedingly demanding role requiring 'quiet' projection of internal turmoil.......... but the main question that writer-director Krzysztof Kieslowski seems to raise is whether any of us can be truly freed/ liberated from those deeply-engraved human-connections, not just the palpably-immediate ones but those that have indelibly-affixed and covertly-impacted over time (significantly influencing a Lifetime)........ in addition, Juliet is faced with unexpected trauma-revelation (about her husband's past) and is confronted with numerous 'choices' that will crucially impact her own way forward (choices that will also deeply-affect the Lives of those who remain eternally 'connected' to Juliet).