Blue

Rating: 8/10 (18 December 2005)

Blue is a Polish film in French, Polish and Romanian with English subtitles. The film is about a woman named Julie who survives a car accident while her husband and daughter were killed. Julie tries to start life again on her own in an apartment in Paris. Along the way Julie discovers things she did not know about her husband and she has to come to terms with her life now that her husband and daughter are gone. Winner of The CEC Award for Best Foreign Film at The Cinema Writers Circle Awards; The Cesar Award for Best Actress (Juliette Binoche who plays Julie), Best Editing and Best Sound at The Cesar Awards; The Goya Award for Best European Film at The Goya Awards; The Guild Film Award Gold for Foreign Film at The Guild of German Art House Cinemas; The Silver Ribbon for Best Female Dubbing at The Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists; The LAFCA Award for Best Music at The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards; The Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress and Best Foreign Film at The Sant Jordi Awards and The Golden Lion (for director and co-writer Krzysztof Kieslowski), The Golden Osella for Best Cinematography and The Volpi Cup for Best Actress at The Venice Film Festival. The film has good direction, a good script, a good performance by Juliette Binoche, good original music, good film editing and good cinematography. The film's director and co-writer Krzysztof Kieslowski made this film in a trilogy of films he called the Three Colors trilogy which is followed by the films White and Red. Blue is a quiet and small film in many ways. There is not a lot of dialogue in the film and the general story is relatively simple when you first view the film, but after viewing it you will later think about it for awhile and have some questions about it. The movie is good looking and I think Juliette Binoche did a very good job expressing her emotions just by her facial expressions and mannerisms instead of using talking seeing as there isn't a lot of that in the film. The film also has a beautiful yet haunting look to it which is very artistic and stylish. Although the film is a little slow moving I was never bored with it and as it moved on I grew more and more curious about the Julie character and I really wanted to see what would happen with her at the end. There is also some neat twists and unpredictable scenes in here that I thought worked quite well too. I must also commend the film for it's great character study of Julie, a woman who is grieving and is also in a state of self discovery. The film is a small and quiet film but it is fascinating and neat to look at and also is quite a thought provoking and intelligent film.