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Three Colours Blue is the first in the Three Colours Trilogy, the film series from director Krzysztof Kieslowski, themed, retrospectively, on the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
Kieslowski is the man behind other classics which I was introduced toaround the time I started at Keele University in 1990, namely 1988’s A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love, both part of Dekalog: The Ten Commandments, and also The Double Life of Veronique, an absolute work of art, featuring the stunning Irène Jacob who also stars in the final part in the trilogy I’m reviewing here, Three Colours Red, which was also Kieslowski’s final film as he sadly died at the age of 54 from a cardiac arrest. The only blessing was that he was still in his home city of Warsaw, Poland.
As the film begins, Julie’s (Juliette Binoche) in the car with her husband Patrice driving, and they’re accompanied by five-year-old daughter Anna. Thanks to a leak of brake fluid, the car crashes and takes two of their lives, leaving her alone in the hospital to come to terms with it, her injuries even preventing her from attending the funeral so she has to watch it on a monitor in her hospital room.
We learn her husband was a successful composer who was commissioned to write the music for the forthcoming Concert for the Unification of Europe. This must feel particularly alienating for Julie because it means she can’t even switch on the TV and grieve privately because the media is forever going on about it. In addition, even shortly after his death, Julie is being hassled by the gutter press trying to dig up dirt on his career.
At this point in her life she starts making bold choices – some of which might be seen as reckless – as she wants to shut herself away from the world and live on her own, away from everyone, except Patrice’s colleague Olivier (Benoit Regent) and her new neighbour Lucille (Charlotte Very) who become part of her life.
As you’d expect from the title, everything on view is themed in blue – there’s the blue room where Patrice worked, the blue chandelier that hung in the room and so on. Even other scenes are draped in blue to continue the theme. And the same piece of music resonates through the film as she begins to live a comparatively minimalist life.
There’s a wonderful and distinct visual style in Three Colours Blue, such as when poignant moments happen and they’re clearly meant to have deep resonance for Julie, as part of her husband’s music blasts out while the picture fades to black and then fades back in again, to the same scene.
The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 theatrical ratio and in 1080p high definition, and looks pin-sharp perfect, often being draped in a stunning blue colour, as you’d expect, and looking wonderful as a result.
Soundwise, this disc only contains a DTS 5.0 soundtrack, so there’s no subwoofer effects in it, but in reality, it doesn’t sound any different than a regular stereo film as there’s absolutely nothing going on in the rear speakers.
The extras are small in number, and are all presented in letterboxed 16:9, which is odd in the age of Blu-ray, but I guess they’re old extras:
- Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Masterclass (1994) (7:30): Kieslowski focuses on the busker scene in this film, particularly the moment where Julie allows her coffee to soak into a sugar cube in full in a mere five seconds and how the lengths they went to, to find such a cube!
- Interviews: with Juliette Binoche (23:12), editor Jacques Witta (14:02) and producer Marin Karmitz (16:26), the first of which shows the actress in various scenes from the film while her voice plays out over the top of the video, while those interviewed in the other two do appear on camera.
- Trailers (1:46, 1:33, 1:29): One for each of the three films. So few releases seem to give the trailers for the actual film on the disc these days, for no apparent reason, so I’m very pleased to see these here.
The menu features a small section of the incidental music over and over, there are English subtitles available as optional, which is good for French viewers who don’t require them, and the chaptering is perfect with a sumptuous 36 over the 97-minute running time. Why can’t all Blu-rays be like this, chapter-wise?
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
8 10 7 3 |
| OVERALL | 7 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 98 minutes
Year: 1993
Date of release: December 9th 2013
Distributor: Artificial Eye
Chapters: 36
Cat no: ART094BD
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS 2.0 (Dolby Stereo)
Languages: French
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 1.85:1
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Producer: Marin Karmitz
Screenplay: Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Agnieszka Holland, Edward Zebrowski and Slawomir Idziak
Music: Zbigniew Preisner
Cast:
Julie Vignon-de Courcy: Juliette Binoche
Olivier: Benoit Regent
Sandrine: Florence Pernel
Lucille: Charlotte Very
The journalist: Helene Vincent
Realtor: Philippe Volter
Doctor: Claude Duneton
Patrice: Hugues Quester
Mother: Emmanuelle Riva
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.