A Well-Constructed Demonstration Of Grief That Won't Exactly Make The Dedicated Cinephile Feel 'Blue'.
Grief is probably one of the more basic human emotions. We are all going to experience it at some point in our lives, but in many different ways. Three Colors: Blue, or simply Blue, is a demonstration of grief that is done with realistic storytelling while incorporating beautiful symbolism.
Story:
Three Colors: Blue follows the story of a famous composer's wife named Julie (Juliette Binoche) who slowly goes into a depressive state after her husband and child were killed in a car crash. As the film progresses, she slowly starts to detach herself from everything and everyone around her.
Ups:
The thing which I loved the most that, in my opinion, makes the film is the performance by Juliette Binoche. What makes this performance so outstanding is that even though Binoche plays a grieving woman, she mostly plays against our sympathy and doesn't go into "woe-is-me" or "I'M ANGRY" territory. Binoche is a quiet force of nature in this and the power of her restraint helps carry this brilliant film.
I also really liked the film's color scheme. The film's titular color, blue, follows our main heroine around and to me, it is a representation of Julie's depressed feelings. While she gets rid of most of her belongings, she even keeps a blue lamp in her house, which is a symbol of Julie holding onto her past and having a piece of her family with her, even though looking at it gives her an ache. That is very believable, in my opinion, since whenever most of us experience something really tragic or even really happy, whenever we have something that reminds us of that event, we always want to hold onto it, even when it breaks our hearts. Plus, the film even weaves in colors from the other two films in the Three Colors trilogy: Red and White. For example, there is a scene where Julie is swimming in a blue pool and kids with red bathing suits and white caps are suddenly jumping in. I thought that was a nice touch. Another thing I even noticed was the use of music. When Julie and her husband's assistant Olivier start to form a bond, the music becomes pretty raw and aggressive, which represents Julie's sensual passion, in my opinion. But other than that, the scenes with classical music suddenly thrown in have a much softer tune.
Even though the film delves into the kind of story we've seen before of somebody discovering hidden secrets about his or her family and whatnot, this film is done differently. I thought the whole idea of someone detaching themselves from any type of human connection by not just alienating themselves from other people, but getting rid of all their belongings was interesting. That kind of detachment is what allows Binoche to showcase such complexity in her performance.
Downs:
NIL.
Consensus:
Overall, Three Colors: Blue is a demonstration of grieving done with such flare and features a phenomenally-acted, multi-faceted performance by Juliette Binoche. The cinematography is beautiful, the music is well-constructed, and the story is done with such heart and soul.
Would I Recommend It?:
I would highly recommend it to all the cinephiles out there. This film is one that is shown in film classes and once you watch the film, you can see why.
Grade: A
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