Initially Sad, It Won't Leave You Feeling Blue

Rating: 7/10 (28 September 2007)

"Blue," the 1993 opening film in Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Blue, White & Red" trilogy, sports perhaps the most fitting title of the three. It tells the story of Julie, a 33-year-old woman who has just lost her composer husband and young daughter in a terrible automobile accident. Thrown into the bluest of blue funks (and who wouldn't be?), Julie moves to a flat in Paris and tries to divorce herself from life, telling herself that money, love and friendships are all traps. But what at first seems to be an extremely downbeat film proves rather life affirming, as Julie discovers that maybe there are things left to her worth engaging with after all. Her newfound and unwanted liberty (blue is the color of the French flag that corresponds with "liberty," oui?), her sudden independence, may not be as desirable as she initially thought.... "Blue" is a film loaded with all sorts of symbolism and suggested meanings. It features world-class direction, striking photography (although that impressive image-on-the-cornea shot was used to better effect in "Goldfinger" some 30 years before) and impeccable acting, especially from Juliette Binoche in the lead. It is certainly not the picture for viewers desiring speed, but nonetheless rewards the patient viewer with its ultimately uplifting message that life does have a way of pulling us back in. Though easily the most somber of the trilogy, it is not at all depressing, and didn't leave me feeling blue at all. Oh...has anyone else noticed that although Julie's daughter is reported to be 5 at her funeral, the dates on her coffin indicate 7? Is this an error on the director's part (hard to believe, with such an impeccable craftsman as Kieslowski) or something else that needs to be thought about by the viewer? In a picture that offers so much food for thought, this is just one more tasty morsel.