A Bit More Narrative Please

Rating: 4/10 (3 July 2010)

The movie's narrative basically ends after the first ten minutes. There is practically no external conflict after that, except for the rather uninteresting point of will Juliete Binoche finish the score for the "Unification of Europe" song. To tell the truth, I really, really did not care one way or the other.
Without plot narrative, we're left with some quite striking cinematography, mainly shots of Juliete which should definitely be in a slick fashion magazine. There's some nice montage of images and sounds a la Godard or Bertolucci, but nothing very memorable except for a sugar cube dissolving and some baby mice. This leaves me in the distinct minority of those who found the film cold and boring. I realize that the director Krzysztof Kieslowski was dying of aids when he made this film, but I can't transfer my sympathy for him to the film. I haven't seen the other two films in the trilogy. I hope they are better.
I'm also upset with the false advertising on the DVD which calls the film "Mysterious and Sexy." There is no mystery here and one shot of Juliete Binoche's naked back and several shots of her swimming in a bathing suit hardly qualifies a film as sexy. Of course, if they had written the truth "Morbid and Pretty" who would buy it?