by Afra Nariman

Three Colors: Blue (1993)

Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski

Stars: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent

REVIEW:

Krzysztof Kieślowski’s cinema is one of restrained emotion. His films are interested in observing human actions and reactions, without the over-dramatization of character circumstances. This is never more clear than it is in his first installment of this trilogy, the quietly devastating, Three Colors: Blue. One of the most nuanced depictions of grief in cinema, Blue stays grounded in its approach to tying this experience to one of gradual self-actualization. 

In doing so, Kieślowski always keeps things simple; never conceding to rely on large outbursts of emotion or huge epiphanies. Instead he highlights the smaller, seemingly insignificant moments (often with a fade-to-black ellipses accompanied by a musical crescendo), to signify the importance of small moments when coping with grief, and in discovering personal freedom. For Kieślowski, when dealing with complex themes such as grief — or those of his other films: morality, alienation, identity, love, etc. — the profound always stems from the everyday.

MY RATING /5:

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