• Kieslowski’s Three Colours: White is always going to be sandwiched between Blue and Red and probably for that reason it is unfairly overlooked. I’m guilty of this, too- and was flat wrong with my prior assessment.
  • It is the “equality” portion of the liberty/equality/fraternity color trilogy from the great master who liked arranging his works in the context of larger themes like that (including the 10 commandments and prior to his death was getting tor ruminate on a Heaven/Purgatory/Hell trilogy). White feels like the least on-the-nose of the three films in this trilogy—“equality” seems like a stretch. It is worth noting that Juliette Binoche shows up at the 4 minute mark. She walks into the wrong courtroom right when the word “equality” is being used.
  • This is the lightest of the three films- Kieslowski’s comedy- but this isn’t Step Brothers or Bananas– this is a black comedy- closer to A Serious Man or Phantom Thread
  • Zbigniew Zamachowski plays Karol Karol. He has a brother Jerzy Stuhr (who played his brother in Dekalog 10), a partner, but this is really his story  about his failed marriage with Julie Delpy’s (year prior to Before Sunrise) Dominique. The movie starts with their divorce.  It is a story of his love/fixation and revenge.

Kieslowski’s Three Colours: White is always going to be sandwiched between Blue and Red and probably for that reason it is unfairly overlooked

  • We get the old person putting the bottle in the recycling again like Blue – Binoche does nothing in Blue, here Karol looks, and looks concerns, but ultimately does nothing as well. I think this also shows that these three actions are happening at the same time in Paris in all three films.
  • Instead of the ornament in Blue the reoccurring object here is a bust (looks like plaster) that comes up again and again as a reoccurring motif. It serves Kieslowski’s purpose (it is white of course) of showing Karol’s fixation and preoccupation with Dominique even when she’s physically absent from most of the film

Instead of the ornament in Blue the reoccurring object here is a bust (looks like plaster) that comes up again and again as a reoccurring motif

  • It is a film about impotence (both sexually and power for the relationship)
  • There is a stunning white-filtered scene early in the film. It is their wedding day (via flashback). This is mirrored later with a two minute prolonged scene (again through these gorgeous whiteout lighting/décor and then we get a fade to white). There is another fade to quite as Karol finally achieves his goal of having Dominque in bed (they are getting divorced because he can’t have sex after their marriage)—Kieslowski fades to white after her orgasm

There is a stunning white-filtered scene early in the film. It is their wedding day (via flashback). This is mirrored later with a two minute prolonged scene (again through these gorgeous whiteout lighting/décor and then we get a fade to white)

  • After the divorce he goes back to home to Poland in a suitcase, gets literally dumped into a pile of waste (complete with white seagulls and white garbage) and, hilariously says something akin to “it is good to be home” (as he is back in Poland after being in Paris). It is then like a little gangster movie as he goes from rags to riches—all with revenge/love at the front of his mind (depending on how you interpret it on the film)
  • A triumph of location shooting and location design. The white just isn’t in the objects, costume décor, lighting filters— but the big hallway at the courthouse, the train station—gorgeous set pieces—and then the subway with white lights here. A great shot on the ice as well. The shot of the white cloudy sky (reflecting off the snow) would make for a great trio with the green sky church on a hill landscape in Veronique and the post-crash sky in Blue

A triumph of location shooting and location design– the ice here

…the courthouse…

… the subway

  • Kieslowski uses form multiple times with mirroring shots/sequences. One is the final shot—Karol with binoculars looking at Delpy’s character (the location chance of the final shot is part of the sick joke)- this almost exact scene happened earlier as well. There’s also two shots of Delpy at the door in the same pose- clearly still thinking about Karol. The wedding flashback happens twice as well

Kieslowski uses form multiple times with mirroring shots/sequences- this shot at the door with Delpy happens twice- it may even be the exact same shot, the binoculars scene happens twice, as does the wedding flashback

  • It is an odd love story, part black comedy- I mentioned Phantom Thread before and I think that fits. There’s torture/pain/love here.

It is an odd love story, part black comedy- I mentioned Phantom Thread before and I think that fits. There’s torture/pain/love here.

  • A Must-See film