Blue | 
| Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Actors: Juliette Binoche, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy, Benoit Regent, Florence Pernel
Studio: Miramax
Category: Video
List Price: $9.99
Buy Used: $0.68
You Save: $9.31 (93%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 22156
Format: Color, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: French (Original Language), Polish (Original Language), Romanian (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 100
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6303160344
UPC: 765362759033
EAN: 9786303160344
ASIN: 6303160344
Theatrical Release Date: 1993
Release Date: May 1, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
The first installment of the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy on Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, the three colors of the French flag. Blue is the most somber 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 color 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
Description
Praised as one of the top films of the year by critics and audiences alike, this stylish and provocative mystery delivers captivating performances and stunning imagery! Academy Award(R)-winner Juliette Binoche (Best Supporting Actress, 1996, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, CHOCOLAT) is a young woman left devastated by the unexpected death of her husband and child. She retreats from the world around her, but is soon reluctantly drawn into an ever-widening web of lies and passion as the dark secret life of her husband begins to unravel. With each startling discovery and heart-stopping surprise, BLUE is sure to entertain you from beginning to end!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 77 more reviews...
 Outstanding September 8, 2008
Krzysztof Kieslowski was one of the more interesting filmmakers of the last quarter century, and the centerpiece of his claim to greatness is the Three Colors (Trois Couleurs) trilogy of films that he wrote and directed in the early to mid-1990s, filming them all at the same time. Blue, White, and Red represent the three colors of the French flag, and symbolize the three virtues of liberty, equality, and fraternity respectively. Blue (Bleu) is the first film in the series, and was released in 1993. The color blue also resonates for its associations with depression and coldness, that are well demonstrated in the film. It was deserving of the many award sit garnered, such as winning Best Film at the Venice Film Festival and the Goya Awards, as well as star Juliette Binoche (who looks like a prettier Julia Roberts, as well as a better actress) winning Best Actress at Venice and the Cesar Awards.
Yet, Kieslowski made a wise choice to depoliticize his films, for the freedom that Blue deals with is not political but personal and emotional- a hoped for freedom from memories, and not the cheap sort that Hollywood would foist, such as a woman running away from an abusive boyfriend. If only more artists (think Latin American writers) could learn that political statements can be made slyly and subtly and wield far more power than overt preaching. Another wise move he made was to cast this film as a picaresque, whose main character is delineated in small strokes, with scenes that do not drive simple plot not character development, but stand alone and apart as merely defining her state of mind.
The film starts with an automobile accident that kills off a husband and father, the famous musical composer Patrice de Courcy, and his five year old daughter Anna. The only survivor is his wife, named Julie de Courcy nee Vignon (Juliette Binoche). This is foreshadowed when we see a shot of leaking brake fluid from the car when the daughter is let off the side of the road to urinate. Fortunately, the crash occurs off camera, not in the melodramatic style a Hollywood film would drool over. Interestingly, at the end of the film, after the credits, Kieslowski has a sly tweak when he notes that, since the car is an Alfa Romeo, any loss of brake fluid, and the accident, are purely fictional events. When Julie wakes in a hospital we see an extreme close up of her pupil reflecting the image of her doctor. It is an objective shot of subjectivity after Julie regains her consciousness after an unspecified period of time. This ellipsis of death to the opened eye has a great psychic resonance to the viewer, in a way mere words cannot. She recovers, after a fey attempt at suicide by overdose at her hospital, and decides to abandon her country estate and set out for an anonymous life in Paris. In one scene, Julie comes upon her old maid who is crying. She asks, `Why are you crying?' The maid answers, `I am crying because you are not.' The rest of the plot has been detailed by others.
I started this review by stating that Krzysztof Kieslowski was one of the more interesting filmmakers of the last quarter century, and I stand by that claim. The only thing a viewing of this film will add to that claim is to append the term great to that description, for Blue is a flat-out masterpiece. It is as mysterious as a work of Antonioni, symbolic as a film of Bergman, humane as a work of Fellini, and precise as a work of Kubrick. That's good company to keep, and this film earns such companionship
Outstanding, with one quibble July 30, 2008
I've finally seen all three films of the trilogy, and Blue is probably my least favorite, but that's considering I gave the film five stars. Really, all three films are outstanding and I couldn't recommend them more highly.
However, as an animal lover, I was bothered by Julie's 'solution' to the problem of finding a mother mouse and her tiny babies, in her closet. I agree that few people want to find a mouse family in their house, but to dispatch the neighbor's cat to kill them all was cruel and unnecessary. She could have left the mice until they were old enough to trap and release, she could have moved the family in a suitable 'house' outside, or she could have put them in a cage and allowed the family to grow until they could be safely released.
We treat other creatures in a too cavalier manner. These animals are living creatures and deserve to live their lives out without human interference in such a sense as Julie did. This bothered me thoughout the film.
At least in 'Red' Kieaelowski allowed that the German Shepherd dog, who was 'run over' by the female protagonist Valentine, survived and was treated with love and respect by her owner. At one point, it showed that the puppies survived and were doing well.
Other than that, I loved Blue and plan on buying all three films on DVD. Blue was very well acted and the music was just fantastic. The soundtrack to Blue is available here and I plan on buying that as well. The music is used very effectively. It intrudes in a way that I felt the Julie character (who was married to a composer and helped edit his work) was just struck by the powerful nature of the music, perhaps as she had envisioned it or as she shared her husbands obsession with it.
Highly recommended. Buy this; you will not be disappointed!
 Ah, Kieslowski, we lost you too soon. May 30, 2008
Blue (Krzystof Kieslowski, 1993)
I'm not sure who wrote the cover copy for the Miramax release of Blue, but whoever it was should have lost his job. To describe a Kieslowski film in the terms of a traditional, and derivative, Hollywood mystery is a crime of monstrous proportions. And yet that's exactly what they did.
If you have any experience with Kieslowski (and if you don't, I strongly suggest getting your hands on Dekalog immediately, if not sooner), you've got a better idea of what to expect here-- a spare, moving portrait of someone in distress. That someone is Julie Vignon de Courcy (Juliette Binoche), who awakens from a coma after a car accident to find that her husband and daughter were both killed. She flees her old life, setting herself up anonymously in Paris, but pieces of her old life-- including some she didn't know existed-- keep cropping up to stall her flight at every turn.
If you've never seen a Kieslowski film, it's very difficult to explain what it is that makes him, as some have said, the best European filmmaker of the twentieth century; it has to do with the attention to detail, the subtleties of his movies, as opposed to the larger constructions of plot, setting, or theme. Granted, he uses all these things masterfully. It would be difficult to focus on a filmmaker's wonderful attention to detail if the movie holding those details up is a travesty (cf. every film M. Night Shyamalan has made since Unbreakable). But whereas some filmmakers are capable of producing wonderful set pieces that one can watch over and over again without remembering much of anything about them-- think, for example, about the cult hit Tremors-- scenes from Kieslowski flicks will haunt you for years after you first see them. A close-up of a face, say. An awkward telephone conversation. Juliette Binoche running her hand along a wall, so lost in thought that she doesn't realize she's drawing blood. (Yes, that's really Juliette Binoche's hand, and her blood.) It's these little things that separate the Kieslowskis of the world from the guys who are almost, but not quite, that good. A Kieslowski film isn't something you simply watch, it's something you experience. ****
Compelling Film of Loss and Reclamation February 29, 2008
"Blue" is not an easy film to watch but for that reason it makes it that more indispensible. The film deals with a young widow coping with not only the loss of her husband but her child as well. The film essentially examines how we comport ourselves in the face of great personal tragedy. We don't necessarily agree with the choices that Julie(Juliette Binoche) makes but they're certainly understandable. There is no handbook for grief and some of us try to insulate ourselves from the past just to survive day to day. Personally, I can relate to Julie because I have a sister who lost a husband at a young age and at the time I found some of her behavior inexplicable. Binoche gives a carefully modulated performance that doesn't overplay the film's more dramatic elements. A challenging film for adventurous filmgoers.
A Beguiling French Modern Classic. , 14 Sep 2007 February 23, 2008
Plot:
A young widow tries to escape her grief by moving to Paris, but, is escape possible.
My Review:
The 'Three Colours' trilogy is made by Krzysztof Kieslowski, the director of a small multitude of brilliant and exceptional French films, The Double Life Of Veronique; being one of his best.
Remarkable performances are endowed with the protagonist Julie (Juliette Binoche) surviving a car crash that claims the lives of her famous composer husband and five-year-old daughter, Julie (Binoche) makes an anonymous new start in a Paris flat; trying to regain her life.
A stern, frozen response to her persona in much the same of this review being short and bereft of essence. She construes vivid memories, haunted by music from her late husband's unfinished piece, a child's laugh could be heard.
Verdict:
Kieslowski: well done. 9/10.
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