Gorgeous and resonant.

Rating: 9/10 (18 February 2012)

Krzysztof Kieslowski explores grief and loss here with an authenticity, aided by the perfectly understated turn from Juliette Binoche, that is somehow simultaneously beautiful and ravaging. So many scenes leave a lasting impression. The moments of her succumbing to masochistic tendencies in order to feel something, anything other than the unbearable despair over her loss, are absolutely wrenching.
Kieslowski doesn't lean towards melodrama for a moment here, never allowing his audience to feel as though they are watching a film take place, but rather presenting such a lived-in study of this level of devastation a person can experience. Binoche is on point every step of the way, somehow being expressive to the audience while shutting herself off from everyone around her. She is my favorite actress in the history of cinema and this is a glowing example as to why; even when she's saying nothing she is saying everything. Her face is so expressive in the most subtle of ways and here she puts that to remarkable use.
Of course even if this wasn't such an emotionally profound piece, it would still manage to be a treat for the eyes, with Kieslowski making full use of his color palette in impressively vivid ways. That final shot, a hold on Binoche's face as tears quietly stream down it, was one of the few things that I had remembered from my initial viewing of the film years ago and it's easy to see why; it's haunting.