Trios Coleurs – Part 1 Bleu

‘It was an average movie’ declared one of my friends as we were walking out of the theater. Throughout our drive back from the theater both my friends continued to discuss about the movie. One of them thought that the lead actress was hot and the actions scenes were cool and being the one who doesn’t care much for the story gave it thumbs up. The other friend cared for the story so much that he (in an equally emphatic manner) gave it heavy thumbs down. I being the designated driver (and unable to make up my mind) remained a passive listener. Over the rest of the weekend as I was trying to make up my mind on what I thought about the movie, I began wondering what a good film is. Is there something called a perfect movie or is it, as every other human creation, just human.

Not long after this incident happened I chanced upon watching a French movie titled ‘Trois couleurs: Bleu’. It is the first part of the trilogy of colors (the other two being Blanc (white) and rouge – red). The story is from the point of view of a lone survivor of a car accident. The movie is the story of the protagonist (Juile), played by Juliette Binoche, in coming to terms with the grief of loosing her husband (a celebrated composer) and daughter. The movie depends on subtle actions and abstractness and in the process successfully avoids melodrama. In the beginning Julie is cold and indifferent to the world around her as she tries to come to terms with her loss. Kieslowski manages to illustrate this without too many dialogues. The movie is truly reminiscent of the eastern European style of movie making where long pauses and subtle actions take the place of trite dialogues and glycerin filled eyes. The movie sets the mood with the dominant blue imagery as indeed blue color signifies grief.

But ‘Blue’ is not a movie of grief alone. It is the struggle that Juile’s character undergoes to bring closure to her loss. It is this intensely personal process of catharsis that her character goes through to overcome the pain of her loss and thus attain liberation. Again, Kieslowski depicts this journey of the lead character through simple but intimate visuals. The nuanced performance of Juliette Binoche does its part to enhance the intensity of the moments. The background score by Zbigniew Preisner is more than appropriate in developing the mood of the scenes and lingers long after we are done watching the movie.

So what determines the quality of the movie? Cinema like any other art form is a medium of expression. The elemental duty of a movie is to bring to forefront a truth about life with the help of simple yet intense visuals and in the process touch the heart of the viewer. The story is just a landscape, the performers mere colors but it is the simple truth that forms the soul of a movie.

It is from this point of view that this movie scores. True the story is original, the imagery eye-catching and the editing attention grabbing but above all it is the idea, that simple truth constantly lingering in the background, that touches the viewer at a personal level. So is the movie flawless? Hardly so, it is as i put it in the beginning of this review merely human..