Beautiful Pain

Rating: 9/10 (3 September 2019)

"Most of this film is about feeling directionless and hopeless after a tragedy, and not knowing what to do with oneself, not knowing how to cope. I've read that people have interpreted this film as an anti-tragedy, and I could absolutely see that, because when her family dies, Julie's character shuts down, but not in a typical way. Julie's character seems driven to forget about what has happened, so much so that she doesn't even seem to really process the tragedy that's happened to her. Even though we have never met the person she was before the accident, we can tell that she has become a different person than she used to be from the interactions she has with characters that knew her before. Kieslowski's direction is amazing because he's able to capture the feeling of isolation through his framing, and the colors he chooses to use. Oftentimes, Julie's character is partially obscured, or the upper half of the frame will be shrouded in darkness, as if she is hiding away her emotions, or if a dark cloud of depression hangs above her.
Binoche herself is spellbinding as Julie. It's hard to play emotionless without being boring. Julie goes into her emotionless state and doesn't outwardly change much at all, but through some of her interactions with others, we get glimpses into her psyche. She doesn't cry or sob when her child and husband die, but she will call an old friend up for sex and then discard him immediately. However, after that, she felt horrible about doing it, as shown by the scene where Julie drags her knuckles across a brick wall. Throughout this time, Julie puts up a stoic front, even when she's alone, but slowly, as time goes by and more things come out about her husband, Julie starts to let down her defenses. It really speaks to Binoche as an actor that she is able to show this subtle growth in character, for the way she processes grief is so muffled that it takes someone of her quality to make those subtleties shine through.