This month Verve’s star teen streaming reviewer, Lucy Kennedy, gets stuck into the classic arthouse trilogy, Three Colours.
Three Colours: Blue, White, Red
(Trois Couleurs: Bleu, Blanc, Rouge)
M (for mature audiences)
The Three Colours trilogy are undeniably the most beautiful films I have seen. Contrasting mainstream movies, Kieślowski’s timeless Trois Couleurs are thoughtful, cultured, grief-ridden art, named after the colours displayed on the French national flag – each widely based upon a chosen political ideal in the motto of the French republic: liberty, equality, and fraternity. A recurring image across all the films is a shot of an elderly person struggling to deposit a bottle into a recycling bin, scenes which capture the spirit of each film. In Bleu, main character Julie does not notice the old woman in need of assistance, reflecting the spirit of liberty – being free within society. In Blanc, leading man Karol smirks at the older person in the spirit of equality, and in the final film, Rouge, Valentine helps her push the bottle into the bottle bank – the essence of fraternity.
I’m unable to pick a favourite of the films. Bleu tells the story of a grieving woman, attempting to pick up the pieces of her life after a car crash takes the lives of her husband and daughter.
The entire film is awash with stunning visuals, heartbreaking classical symphonies, and slanting blue lighting. Blanc tells the tale of a man dealing with his divorce from a wife he still loves. The film is set mainly in Poland, and white snow fills the landscape for much of the film; a quiet blankness that’s strangely comforting. Rouge follows a young model who accidentally hits a dog with her car and the events that follow. Red works its way into her everyday landscape, via a scarf thrown across a chair, the inner lining of a coat, a ferry ticket, even blood.
While every film tells a different story from the others, they all speak with the same voice, holding the same truth and simplicity. Everyone will take something from each film that they will specifically relate and resonate with.
5/5 stars
Available now on Mubi
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