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Three Colours White is the second part of 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. And it is that very city where this film was mostly made.
In Three Colours White, Dominique (Julie Delpy) is getting a divorce her husband from Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) for not consumating their marriage because he has trouble getting it up. In addition, he finds the bank have frozen his account.
Forced to busk for money in the subway, with just a paper-covered comb to make terrible music, he’s offered a job with moral questionability by a fellow Pole, Mikolaj (Janusz Gajos), who happens by one day. He tells him that there’s a man in Warsaw who has it all – a wife, children and money, but wants to die. He can’t do it himself so he needs someone to bump him off on his behalf. It’s a job that will pay him enough money to live on for six months and, into the bargain, Mikolaj’s offer will also bring Karol back home. It’s a very tempting offer given that he has nothing left for him in France.
This sounds like a straight forward job, but given how Karol is a man whose luck frequently goes from bad to worse, nothing can be that simple, surely? Well, things get ten times more weird from there on.
The white of this film is reflected in the cold, harsh winter of Poland, Karol’s homeland. And there’s also a reference back to the ‘Blue‘, with an old person struggling to put a bottle into the recycling bank.
Juliette Binoche also makes a very brief cameo this film. Blink and you’ll miss her!
The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 theatrical ratio and in 1080p high definition, and there are some dark scenes where there’s an element of grain that shouldn’t be there.
Soundwise, this disc 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) (10:45): The film was meant to have a completely different start, more of which you’ll learn here from the director, while he goes into detail about the opening scene with Karol going to the divorce court.
- The Making Of (17:13): On-set footage with Kieslowski commenting as they go.
- Interviews: Two here. One with Julie Delpy (21:38), who could’ve possibly appeared in ‘Veronique’ and ‘Blue‘; and producer Marin Karmitz (5:37).
- 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. Oddly, while Blue had 36 chapters, White only has 24 over its 91-minute running time. I wonder why cutbacks?
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
9 8 7 4 |
| OVERALL | 7 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 91 minutes
Year: 1994
Date of release: December 9th 2013
Distributor: Artificial Eye
Chapters: 28
Cat no: ART095BD
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS 2.0 (Dolby Stereo)
Languages: Polish, French, English, Russian
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 Edward Klosinski
Music: Zbigniew Preisner
Cast:
Karol Karol: Zbigniew Zamachowski
Dominique: Julie Delpy
Mikolaj: Janusz Gajos
Jurek: Jerzy Stuhr
The Lawyer: Aleksander Bardini
The Elegant Man: Grzegorz Warchol
The Inspector: Cezary Harasimowicz
Madame Jadwiga: Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska
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.