See it with a fine arts major

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 1999)

She is the wife of a great composer, and the music plays in her head because she is really the composer herself. After her husband and daughter are killed in a traffic accident, she tries to kill herself because the music is too beautiful and the memory of it too painful, but she can't swallow the pills. Then she tries to renounce the world but finds that she still cares.
She is still of flesh. She says she wants no belongings and no memories, "No friends, no love. Those are all traps."
This is a beautiful film, perhaps too precious for some, understated and overdone by turns with artsy shots on common objects and blurred views filtered through liquid colors, especially of course the color blue. Sometimes the movie was so quiet for so long I became aware of the faint whine of the VCR.
Juliette Binoche, lately seen as the nurse in "The English Patient," dominates the screen with her affecting countenance. The camera continually explores and re-explores her face-an interesting, almost androgynous face, kind and gentle, unassuming with a sweet undercurrent of power.
I liked this better than the overly clever "White" that followed, also directed by the talented Krzysztof Kieslowski.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)