Thursday, May 05, 2005

Three Colours: Blue

Having splashed out and bought the collectors edition of Kieslowski's amazing Three Colours trilogy, this seems a good opportunity to sit down and watch the three in close succession and to set down a few thoughts about each along the way...

It starts, appropriately enough, with Blue, blue for liberty - the first in the trilogy, the first that I saw, whose soundtrack I can listen to over and over, and to which I respond in a way that no other film comes even close to evoking. Suffused in blue, it's a film of immense subtlety and visual and emotional depth; so much is unsaid but so much is conveyed and suggested. I always find watching it to be an incredibly rich experience, heart-piercing and uplifting all at once - it's oblique and stylish to the point of stylisation, and somehow this adds to its insight and truthfulness. Every image is exquisite and many linger in the mind (especially the scene in which Julie physically abrades herself, dragging her fist along a stone wall as she almost runs alongside it, all sorts of things written in her face), the music is gorgeous (and central), Juliette Binoche is remarkable...

I think that Blue might be the most perfect film I've ever seen.