The Beauty of Blue

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2007)

The "beauty" of Kieslowski's later works has little to do with "pretty pictures," but everything to do with his cinematic imagination, and his ability to tap into and enrich the emotional, spiritual, and aesthetic content of his work.
The opening sequence to "Blue," involving the car passing through a tunnel, as we are immersed in the ambient sounds (hearing bits of familial conversation, viewing the swish of vehicles and splash of lights through the window), followed by the passage into late afternoon light (and the silvery blue balloon being sucked out the side window flapping in the breeze), just before the accident, is as astounding in its beauty as it is penetrating in its content....
This film is resplendent with cinematic sequences as unique and profound as its opening, and, throughout," Kieslowski's use of sound as a way to access Binoche's interior process is absolutely brilliant. Witness the sequence, when she finally feels able to step out into the world again and move into the city after the accident. She rents an apartment on an upper floor of a large, strange vacuous building, and there, that first night, through her window, witnesses the beating of a man on the street, who escapes and runs into her building, the fear on her face, as she listens to him climb the long metal escape stairway, floor by floor, still followed by his assailants, as he comes closer to her....
But it is not only the imagery (Binoche blurry through window, staring vacantly somewhere as she experiences intimate relations for the first time since the accident), or ambient sound (the sudden clamor and echo of the indoor swimming pool as she comes up for air from under water) that reflects the nature of her psyche, but Preisner's haunting music that simultaneously takes us back to her husband and her tragedy, as much as towards her recovery of self as she engages her creative process.
She is a woman who has lived in the shadow of her husband, while yet participating in the creation of the very music he is famous for, and as the music enters the film, each time, it is her reflecting on and coming to terms with all that it represents to her, including, finally, the bridge to her salvation....
This is not a typical Hollywood redemption tale handing us the standard prescription for such a tale of woe, no "how to reclaim your power as a woman course 101." This is a tale of truth, and we believe Binoche every time she makes a decision because we are not only privy to her experience, but fully involved in the process of transformation that becomes her liberation.
I could go on and on through every scene like this, but it is better to watch and listen to the film several times by yourself....