Three Colors: Blue

                                         Three Colors: Blue by Krzysztof Kieslowski

            In Blue Julie is traveling with her husband and daughter when they get into an auto accident, which is seemingly caused by a leak in the brake fluids. Both the husband and the daughter are killed in the accident and Julie struggles to go on living life without them. Her husband was a famous composer and she takes everything from their lavish life and abandons it moving from their mansion to a small apartment far away in a city. The only thing she takes from home is a blue chandelier that presumably belonged to her little daughter. She destroys her husband’s last uncompleted work as a way in which to finally sever all ties to her former like and distance herself from her work.

            Later a man named Oliver tries to finish her husband’s last uncompleted work from an extra copy someone sent him anonymously. Julie finds out about this copy of his work around the same time she finds out he had a mistress. She shows the woman compassion when she learns the woman is carrying her husband’s child. In dealing with these issues Julie slowly returns back to the life that she has been running from the whole time. Oliver convinces her to finish her husband’s work on the condition that he not reveal that she is responsible for the completion of the work. The score is played all across Europe during their celebration marking the end of the cold war and after it plays Julie finally cries allowing herself to make peace with the death of her loved ones and to also learn to live a life in which she doesn’t stop living when they died.

            I find that a major theme of Blue is the escape of ones own past. In the face of all the trauma and horror of loosing her loved ones Julie tries to commit suicide but when she could not do that she decided to try and live life in a completely emotionally sealed off manner. That was effectively an attempt to isolate herself from her other human beings, she said how getting connected to people would only lead to more pain and heartbreak. But throughout the movie she realizes that no person living can truly separate themselves completely from other people. If we are alive we are constantly interacting with others and even against our will becoming close to people since forming bonds are completely natural and unavoidable.

            I really enjoyed this film very much, I own it in the criterion collection but I haven’t seen it in years so I felt watching it in class illuminated so much about it. In the introduction where the shot under the car reveals the leaking fluids I had not originally realized that this was supposed to elude the succeeding accident. I also enjoy how the entire beginning was silent and the whole introduction to the story was told simply with images. The story overall is a powerful one and it tells a wonderful story about overcoming the horrible trauma that can destroy any person’s world so suddenly.