Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours Trilogy comprises three films: Blue (1993), White (1994), and Red (1994), based on the famous ideals of the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity. This is my second post whilst making my way through the trilogy, and will focus on White. After finishing the trilogy I’ll be posting an overall review comparing and contrasting the films.
White is a darkly humorous story about the pain of lost love. After being cruelly divorced by his beautiful wife Dominique (Julie Delpy), and losing his money, friends and security, Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) has hit an all time low. He leaves France under very illegal circumstances, returns to his native Poland, and sets up a complex scheme in order to get his revenge.
I watched this one directly after watching Blue. It was immediately clear to me that Blue was an incredible film. Although it was dark, it showed a blunt and honest portrayal of grief, which I really loved. Watching White afterwards was quite a shock, as it actually has quite a lot of humour, which tends to mask the emotion at crucial points in the film. In this way, I didn’t enjoy it as much as Blue, as the plot was slightly more vague and the central ‘feeling’ was sometimes lost. However, I believe that if I had watched it by itself, I might have enjoyed it a lot more as there would be no occurring comparison factor.
That being said, the cinematography for White is just as beautiful as that of Blue, and its visuals are rich with symbolism. Here are some frames that stuck out for me, which are great examples of the perfect shot-making that occurs throughout the entire trilogy.
3/5
Watch the trailer here.
Note: My three individual posts for Blue, White, and Red are photo posts which show examples of the beautiful cinematography of all three. A more thorough (AKA wordy) exploration of the trilogy will be up after the next post, which is for Red.
FILM GRIMOIRE 
I loved the Three Colors trilogy! Red was my favorite so I can’t wait for your review on that. It was the first time I had seen Irene Jacob in anything and I thought she was just fabulous.
I loved Red so much! My review might be slightly delayed though! I am loving this trilogy so far, it seems to just do everything perfectly. The casting is so excellent too. Thanks! 🙂
I haven’t seen White, but the change in tone from Blue is interesting. I think humor plays a vital role in expressing tragedy, love, loss, and pain, so my guess is that the tonal changes are important to Kieslowski’s ultimate vision.
I very much appreciate these reviews. Good work!
Totally, it’s really interesting to see how the three main characters process pain in their own unique way. I am sure the change in tone was completely character driven, as Karol seemed to be a much more jovial and optimistic character in general, when compared with Julie. Thanks for your comment, I’m loving writing about these films! Every time I think about them or respond to a comment about them, I seem to uncover a new layer of my love for them. 🙂
[…] Three Colours trilogy, directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, consists of three films: Blue (1993), White (1994), and lastly, Red (1994). This conclusion to the trilogy confronts the French Revolutionary ideal of […]
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