BLUE (TRES COULEURS: BLEU)

France, 1993, 100 minutes, Colour.
Juliette Binoche, Emmanuelle Riva, Julie Delpy.
Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Blue is the first film of a trilogy by writer-director Krzysztof Kieslowski. The other films are White and Red - completing the colours of the Tricolour flag of France and on the themes of the French Revolution, liberty, equality, fraternity.

This film is a focus on liberty, personal liberty. It focuses on a widow, played by Juliet Binoche (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Lovers of the Pont Neuf, Damage, Oscar for The English Patient). She gradually detaches herself from her previous life, finding an inner liberty - but also an isolation. She is a composer, music comes to haunt her and gradually she completes a work, a concerto dedicated to the unity of Europe. It is a powerful concerto - and its lyrics are based on the chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13.

Kieslowski became known in the west after many years of film-making with his series on The Decalogue. He also made The Double Life of Veronica.

1.Impact of the film, part of a trilogy, its colour, theme of liberty?

2.The title: Blue - the tone, the visuals, especially with the music? Night, the room, the swimming pool? The result of the pervading blue?

3.The French settings, the roads, the city, the interiors?

4.The musical score, the thematic music, the powerful notes coming into Julie's mind? The final oratorio - its sound, choir, lyrics? The visuals designed to dramatise the oratorio?

5.The theme for a united Europe, a dream? The collage of people from Julie's life seen during the oratorio? The significance of 1 Corinthians 13 and the all-pervasiveness of love?

6.The opening with the car, the tyre, the car on the road, speed, the little girl, the hitch-hiker, the violence of the accident, the boy's reaction, running to the car?

7.Julie - her eye, coming awake, the grief and the news, her own personal physical and psychological trauma, the doctor, the therapy and her gradual recovery? Her decision to kill herself, the tablets - her inability to do it? The response of the nurse?

8.Her personal decisions - the influence of the journalist, the understanding of her husband as a musician, his compositions? His assistant and the calls, wanting to complete the music? The encounter, sexual encounter and its effect on Julie? Her decision to assuage his desire and then leave? Her husband's will, the bequests? Divesting herself of everything?

9.Her living alone, the old house and the gardener, emptying the rooms, the new apartment? Her lifestyle, isolation, reflectiveness? The significance of the swimming?

10.Her psychological journey, being haunted by the musical notes, the journey to liberty, freedom, loneliness?

11.The neighbouring girl, the man going to her room? The petition against her? Her refusal - and the girl coming to thank her? The concierge? The woman coming to ask her to protest against the prostitute? The girl later ringing Julie during the night and her going to the sex show cabaret? The girl's father being there? Her desperation? Stimulating her partner? the acts and the clients? Julie's acceptance of people?

12.The decision to visit her mother, her mother's isolation, mistaking her for her sister, the discussion about fear and Julie's fear - and her acknowledging it? Julie's return and watching her mother? Taking financial care of her mother?

13.Being sought out by the hitch-hiker, his having taken the chain, wanting to give it to Julie? The effect on her - leaving him with the chain?

14.Communication with her husband's assistant, his work in composing, ordering the score? Believing the music lost? The manuscripts and their re-appearance? The assistant and his wanting to complete the score?

15.Julie and the desire to write the music, the urgency? Her gift to the world? The impact of the performance of the oratorio, the music and the lyrics, the range of visual style, impressions, the range of people included - the hitch-hiker, her mother...?

17. The telejournalist and her hostility? the interview and photos? the realisation that her husband had a mistress? The help of the assistant, finding the mistress at the courts? the meeting? Julie's decision to give her the house for her boy? the visit to the gynaecologist?

18. The discovery of the rats, her revulsion, the question of killing them? Her getting assistance? the will to destroy the rats, the mother?

19.A moral fable, European flavour, Christian dimensions? The religious in the secular of the '90s?