Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5396 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-10-29
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: French, Polish, Romanian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first instalment of the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy on Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, the three colours of the French flag. Blue is the most sombre of the three, a movie dominated by feelings of grief. As the film begins, a car accident claims the life of a well-known composer. His wife, played by Juliette Binoche (Oscar winner for The English Patient), does not so much put the pieces of her life back together as start an entirely new existence. She moves to Paris, where she dissolves into a wordless life virtually without other people. Kieslowski attaches an almost subconscious significance to the colour blue but primarily he focuses on Binoche's luminous face and the way her subtle shifts in emotion flicker and disappear. The picture may be more enigmatic than the follow-ups White and Red but Binoche's quiet, heartbreaking presence becomes spellbinding; her performance won the best actress prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1993. --Robert Horton

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Krzysztof Kieslowski Masterclass (this is about 10 minutes worth of archive footage of the director talking about how he filmed 'Blue')
Interview with Juliette Binoche
Interview with Jacques Witta (editor)
Interview with Marin Karmitz (producer)
Theatrical trailer
Extracts from the original soundtrack composed by Zbigniew Preisner
Dolby Digital 5.1
French with English subtitles
16:9 anamorphic picture

Synopsis
In the first part of acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's extraordinary THREE COLOURS trilogy, BLUE represents Liberty (of Equality and Fraternity) in the French flag and national motto. Julie (Juliette Binoche) is a young, musically gifted Frenchwoman who has just lost her daughter and renowned composer-husband Patrice (Claude Duneton) in a tragic car accident. During her long physical and emotional convalescence, a journalist questions Julie about the widespread rumor that she's the actual composer of all Patrice's work. She rebuffs the journalist's inquiry regarding her husband's music, but she does not deny it. Upon leaving the hospital, Julie takes a flat in Paris and struggles to start anew--but not until she destroys Patrice's final unfinished work--a huge symphony for 12 orchestras, to be played at a gala celebrating the upcoming unification of 12 European nations. However, another copy surfaces, and gradually, as Julie discovers some surprising secrets about her husband's life, she's drawn back to the music, and the pleasures of existence. Kieslowski uses color as metaphor ingeniously, adding immense emotional depth to the story that is unfolding on screen. As Julie, Binoche is a striking cinematic presence. Her transition from a destroyed widow to a woman who has learned to embrace life gives BLUE the heart and soul that makes it a powerful, moving work.

Customer Reviews

Kieslowski's Die Hard trilogy
Don't let the last review put you off. If you're looking at this film, you won't be expecting car chases and machine guns ... These three films, of which Blue if the first, offer a perfect example of what European film makers do so well and Hollywood does so badly, spellbindingly slow studies of character and situation that draw you in, that you need to relax into like a hot bath. If you agree that films can be an artform and not pure entertainment, you don't faint at the thought of subtitles and you don't need an explosion every five minutes to keep you concentrating, give these a try.

Blue period
Blue is the color of sadness and depression. And "Blue" ("Bleu") is the first film in the celebrated Colors trilogy by Krzysztof Kieslowski. Accompanying the rich "Red" ("Rouge") and sharp "White" ("Blanc"), this is a beautiful and haunting look at grief and getting past it.

Julie de Courcy (Juliette Binoche) and her family are in a car accident when their brakes fail. Julie is injured, but her composer husband and their daughter die. She can't bring herself to commit suicide, but neither can she just go home and get over it. So instead she leaves her palatial house in the country after a night with her husband's old friend Olivier (Benoît Régent), who has been in love with her for years.

Julie arrives in Paris with nothing but a blue cut-glass lampshade, takes back her maiden name, rents an apartment, and tries to leave her old life behind. Though she says she doesn't want love or friends (because they are "traps"), she befriends a promiscuous young woman and is pulled back to Olivier when he starts to finish her husband's unfinished work. In turn, Olivier reveals to her the side of her husband she never knew -- the other woman he loved.

The Colors trilogy is based on the colors of the French flag: Blue, white and red, standing respectively for liberty, equality, and fraternity. In this, Julie is unconsciously seeking liberty from her past life and her grief. This grief is shown beyond mere tears and unhappiness. She rakes her knuckles over a rough wall, rips off a strand off the hanging lampshade, as little ways of showing her inner turmoil. At the same time, the revelations about Julie's husband raises questions about their marriage and about Julie herself.

The powerful music celebrating the EU pops up periodically, often when Julie experiences strong emotion. At times, the screen goes dark, and the overwhelming, soaring symphony is all you can detect. And as Kieslowski does in "White" and "Red," this film is sprinkled with color and symbolism. Blue crops up in little dancing bars of light on Julie's face, in her clothing, a swimming pool, in rain-slicked windows, a misty blue morning and a lollipop.

This may be Binoche's best performance. Her expressive eyes and subtle facial expressions convey every tormented or peaceful emotion that Julie feels. One of the best shots in the entire movie is the final one, in which we see Julie, unhappy and tearful, slowly starting to smile. (She also is shown weeping underwater, something I've never seen before) Régent seems rather colorless beside Binoche's reverberating performance, but his quiet, sweet Olivier is an underrated character.

A harrowing, beautiful and ultimately romantic film, "Blue" brims over with pathos and beautiful direction. A true piece of cinematic art.

THE BEST FILM !!!!!!
It is a pleasure for me to be able to write a review of this film. Its beautiful, haunting music impressed me so much that I have since bought, not only the soundtrack, but more CDs of Preisner's music, and I have seen all the films which comprise the trilogy, plus "The Double Life of Veronique" (same director, same composer). I only wish that they could have made more films together. The circumstances, although tragic, result in a courage and determination which is inspiring, and which give answers to the perennial questions as to whether one should continue to attempt to communicate with people, or to withdraw completely, especially after a tragedy, when one is very vulnerable. It's a story of love, of faith and of courage.