It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done;
It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
Those words, among the most famous in all of English literature, are spoken by Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities, my favorite novel of all time. The story depicts life in Paris at the beginning of the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century. The national motto of France, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," is said to have its origins from the Revolution.
In the mid-1990's Polish film maker Krzysztof Kieslowski decided to create a trilogy of stories loosely based on the three words comprising the aforementioned French motto. Appropriately enough, the film titles, in their shortened form, are simply called Blue, White and Red. (The on-screen titles are each preceded by the word "Tri-color.") It is no accident that the three colors precisely correspond to the vertical bars of the French flag, seen left-to-right as blue, white and red.
When these movies came out in the United States, I intended to see them, mostly out of a combination of my admiration of the Dickens book and a curiosity over how the famous Kieslowski worked the colors into his themes. Alas, I never made it to the theater in 1993 in time to see Blue before it disappeared from the Twin Cities, and I was reluctant to view the remaining two films when they were released a year later because I thought -- it turns out mistakenly -- that I needed the background of the first. (PSA: Although you do not need to see the three films in order, the ending of Red makes more sense if you watch that movie last.) About ten years ago I almost bought the boxed set of the trilogy, but due to my basic nature of being frugal -- okay, cheap -- I decided against it. I finally had an opportunity to watch all three films four months ago when they were featured on Turner Classic Movies television. It was worth the wait.
I also remember that after Red was released in 1994, the local critics declared it to be the best of the trilogy. On the other hand, national film critic Leonard Maltin, who published his forty-fifth and final annual film guide this year, bestows that distinction on White. Initially, my personal preference was to give the nod to Blue. Of course, I must confess that I could watch a two hour movie of Juliette Binoche picking flowers in a garden or shopping for floor tile in Menard's, and I would still be inclined to give it two enthusiastic thumbs up (to borrow a phrase from the late Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel). But after a few doses of honest deliberation, I am forced to declare White the superior film, with Blue coming in second.
In Blue, Binoche stars as Julie, the widow of a world famous music composer who had been commissioned by the European Council to write a major concerto titled Concert For The Unification Of Europe. The piece was to be played only once, simultaneously by orchestras in twelve European cities. As the story develops we learn more about the influence Julie had on the composition, working behind the scenes while her husband was hailed as the master.
When she loses her family in a tragic accident, Julie decides to rid herself of almost all of her possessions, including the unfinished concerto score. She instructs her attorney to sell her villa, and heads for the city with only a small box. Her ambition is to start a new life by living anonymously and alone.
Will she be able to find liberty from the life she has left behind? It may not be as easy to do so as one might originally believe.
In White, Zbigniew Zamachowski plays Karol, a Polish hair dresser who marries Dominique (Julie Delpy of the Before Sunrise trilogy), a Parisian who owns a small shop. The story opens with a short courtroom scene, in which Dominique is telling a French judge that she wants a divorce because Karol can't perform in the boudoir. Karol still loves Dominique, but due to the language barrier caused by his inability to converse in French, he has little grasp of what the testimony is, and is unable to assert his own position coherently to the judge. He asks the judge if he is not entitled to a fair trial because he speaks only Polish. In his mind, the principle of equality of legal rights should not be compromised just because one of the parties does not speak the language of the court, viz., French.
When Karol gets back to Poland, he concocts an ingenious scheme to get back at his ex. Will it work, or should he have left well enough alone? By far, this film has the most humor in the trilogy, and has the most "going on" as the story takes place. Add to the mix that Zamachowski is a brilliant actor, and that explains why I place White as the signature piece of the trio.
In Red, Valentine (Irene Jacob) is a young Swiss fashion model whose picture is splashed on billboards all over Geneva. She accidentally injures a dog with her car, and meets the mysterious retired judge Joseph Kern (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who is identified on the dog's collar as its owner. Inside Kern's house, Valentine discovers that he has set up an intricate eavesdropping apparatus which enables him to listen in on his neighbors' telephone conversations. Despite Kern's position, explained at length, that his practice has merit, Valentine shows her disgust and leaves to take the dog to the veterinarian. Kern seems disinterested.
Their paths cross again when the dog runs away from Valentine and ends up back at Kern's house. The two lead characters, who originally could not seem any more disparate, have more conversations. In a strange way, a fraternity is established, and despite their age differences, what they have to say to each other has an impact on their lives.
Kieslowski co-wrote all three of the scripts. As a result there are certain common threads throughout, the most obvious being the use of the respective film titles' colors in each picture. For example, in Blue Julie keeps a blue chandelier after getting rid of all the other items in her villa. That chandelier appears in several subsequent scenes. Many of the filmed scenes appear to be shot through a blue filter. In White, Karol hangs on to a white porcelain bust of a woman's head, which he repairs (and even kisses!). That bust stays with him, whether in France or Poland. There are several outdoor scenes with snow, and a few flashbacks to Karol and Dominique's wedding day, obviously having white as the predominant color. In Red, that color is pervasive throughout; even the dog, Rita, is red.
Each of the three movies contains a "throwaway shot" involving a very old, hunched-over person attempting to insert a bottle into a tall recycling bin. There are varying degrees to which the main character in each story interacts with the senior citizen. There is also one scene in each movie where one or more characters from the other two movies make an extremely brief appearance. Watching the three films in a short span of time will assist you in spotting those moments.
***
I am approximately a month late in posting this Cinema Scan of the movies I've seen on the tube during the third quarter of 2014. Hopefully my editor won't fire me.
1. And God Created Woman (1956 drama; Bridgette Bardot is a sexy teen foster child, who marries Jean-Louis Trintignant to avoid being sent back to the orphanage, even though she is more smitten with his older brother Christian Marquand.) B
2. Blue (1993 drama; see the above mini-review.) B+
3. Breakfast Club (1985 dramedy; Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald are among five high school students from five different cliques who serve a Saturday morning detention in their school's library.) B+
4. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969 western; Paul Newman and Robert Redford are humorous train and bank robbers who, with occasional assistance from Katharine Ross, stay on the run to evade capture by the lawmen.) A
5. A Farewell To Arms (1932 war romance; Gary Cooper is an American army lieutenant who secretly marries nurse Helen Hayes in Italy, but World War I doesn't make things easy on them.) C
6. The Fault In Our Stars (2014 romance; Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are teenage cancer patients who meet in a support group, fall in love and travel to Amsterdam to meet a favorite author.) B+
7. Gallipoli (1981 war drama; Mel Gibson and Mark Lee are young track stars who volunteer to fight for Australia against the Ottoman Turks in World War I.) B+
8. Harper (1966 detective drama; Paul Newman is a slick LA private dick, hired by super rich Lauren Bacall to track down her alcoholic philandering husband.) C
9. Her (2013 drama; Joaquin Phoenix is a nerdy loner who develops a relationship with the woman "inside" his future (?) word operating system.) B-
10. The Lovers (1958 romance; Jeanne Moreau is married to French business owner Alain Cuny, and dallies with handsome polo player Jose Luis de Vilallonga, but when her car breaks down she turns her attention to the motorist who gave her a ride, Jean-Marc Bory.) C
11. Our Man In Havana (1959 comedy; Alec Guiness is a British vacuum cleaner salesman who gets talked into becoming a spy in Havana, where cigar chomping Ernie Kovacs is the chief of police.) B+
12. Random Harvest (1942 romance; show girl Greer Garson helps Ronald Coleman avoid the authorities as he escapes from an asylum where he was an amnesia patient, but their budding romance is cut short when he's struck by a car and suddenly is able to recall his former life.) B+
13. Red (1994 drama; see the above mini-review.) B
14. Shine A Light (2008 documentary; Martin Scorsese filmed the Rolling Stones performance at New York City's Beacon Theater in the fall of 2006, with Mick Jagger doing almost all the singing, while Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts let the great backup singers fill in the accompanying vocals.) B+
15. Spencer's Mountain (1963 drama;
Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara raise nine kids on the Grand Tetons, and
don't mind being poor until their oldest, James MacArthur, needs money
for college.) CThose words, among the most famous in all of English literature, are spoken by Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities, my favorite novel of all time. The story depicts life in Paris at the beginning of the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century. The national motto of France, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," is said to have its origins from the Revolution.
In the mid-1990's Polish film maker Krzysztof Kieslowski decided to create a trilogy of stories loosely based on the three words comprising the aforementioned French motto. Appropriately enough, the film titles, in their shortened form, are simply called Blue, White and Red. (The on-screen titles are each preceded by the word "Tri-color.") It is no accident that the three colors precisely correspond to the vertical bars of the French flag, seen left-to-right as blue, white and red.
When these movies came out in the United States, I intended to see them, mostly out of a combination of my admiration of the Dickens book and a curiosity over how the famous Kieslowski worked the colors into his themes. Alas, I never made it to the theater in 1993 in time to see Blue before it disappeared from the Twin Cities, and I was reluctant to view the remaining two films when they were released a year later because I thought -- it turns out mistakenly -- that I needed the background of the first. (PSA: Although you do not need to see the three films in order, the ending of Red makes more sense if you watch that movie last.) About ten years ago I almost bought the boxed set of the trilogy, but due to my basic nature of being frugal -- okay, cheap -- I decided against it. I finally had an opportunity to watch all three films four months ago when they were featured on Turner Classic Movies television. It was worth the wait.
I also remember that after Red was released in 1994, the local critics declared it to be the best of the trilogy. On the other hand, national film critic Leonard Maltin, who published his forty-fifth and final annual film guide this year, bestows that distinction on White. Initially, my personal preference was to give the nod to Blue. Of course, I must confess that I could watch a two hour movie of Juliette Binoche picking flowers in a garden or shopping for floor tile in Menard's, and I would still be inclined to give it two enthusiastic thumbs up (to borrow a phrase from the late Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel). But after a few doses of honest deliberation, I am forced to declare White the superior film, with Blue coming in second.
In Blue, Binoche stars as Julie, the widow of a world famous music composer who had been commissioned by the European Council to write a major concerto titled Concert For The Unification Of Europe. The piece was to be played only once, simultaneously by orchestras in twelve European cities. As the story develops we learn more about the influence Julie had on the composition, working behind the scenes while her husband was hailed as the master.
When she loses her family in a tragic accident, Julie decides to rid herself of almost all of her possessions, including the unfinished concerto score. She instructs her attorney to sell her villa, and heads for the city with only a small box. Her ambition is to start a new life by living anonymously and alone.
Will she be able to find liberty from the life she has left behind? It may not be as easy to do so as one might originally believe.
In White, Zbigniew Zamachowski plays Karol, a Polish hair dresser who marries Dominique (Julie Delpy of the Before Sunrise trilogy), a Parisian who owns a small shop. The story opens with a short courtroom scene, in which Dominique is telling a French judge that she wants a divorce because Karol can't perform in the boudoir. Karol still loves Dominique, but due to the language barrier caused by his inability to converse in French, he has little grasp of what the testimony is, and is unable to assert his own position coherently to the judge. He asks the judge if he is not entitled to a fair trial because he speaks only Polish. In his mind, the principle of equality of legal rights should not be compromised just because one of the parties does not speak the language of the court, viz., French.
When Karol gets back to Poland, he concocts an ingenious scheme to get back at his ex. Will it work, or should he have left well enough alone? By far, this film has the most humor in the trilogy, and has the most "going on" as the story takes place. Add to the mix that Zamachowski is a brilliant actor, and that explains why I place White as the signature piece of the trio.
In Red, Valentine (Irene Jacob) is a young Swiss fashion model whose picture is splashed on billboards all over Geneva. She accidentally injures a dog with her car, and meets the mysterious retired judge Joseph Kern (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who is identified on the dog's collar as its owner. Inside Kern's house, Valentine discovers that he has set up an intricate eavesdropping apparatus which enables him to listen in on his neighbors' telephone conversations. Despite Kern's position, explained at length, that his practice has merit, Valentine shows her disgust and leaves to take the dog to the veterinarian. Kern seems disinterested.
Their paths cross again when the dog runs away from Valentine and ends up back at Kern's house. The two lead characters, who originally could not seem any more disparate, have more conversations. In a strange way, a fraternity is established, and despite their age differences, what they have to say to each other has an impact on their lives.
Kieslowski co-wrote all three of the scripts. As a result there are certain common threads throughout, the most obvious being the use of the respective film titles' colors in each picture. For example, in Blue Julie keeps a blue chandelier after getting rid of all the other items in her villa. That chandelier appears in several subsequent scenes. Many of the filmed scenes appear to be shot through a blue filter. In White, Karol hangs on to a white porcelain bust of a woman's head, which he repairs (and even kisses!). That bust stays with him, whether in France or Poland. There are several outdoor scenes with snow, and a few flashbacks to Karol and Dominique's wedding day, obviously having white as the predominant color. In Red, that color is pervasive throughout; even the dog, Rita, is red.
Each of the three movies contains a "throwaway shot" involving a very old, hunched-over person attempting to insert a bottle into a tall recycling bin. There are varying degrees to which the main character in each story interacts with the senior citizen. There is also one scene in each movie where one or more characters from the other two movies make an extremely brief appearance. Watching the three films in a short span of time will assist you in spotting those moments.
***
I am approximately a month late in posting this Cinema Scan of the movies I've seen on the tube during the third quarter of 2014. Hopefully my editor won't fire me.
1. And God Created Woman (1956 drama; Bridgette Bardot is a sexy teen foster child, who marries Jean-Louis Trintignant to avoid being sent back to the orphanage, even though she is more smitten with his older brother Christian Marquand.) B
2. Blue (1993 drama; see the above mini-review.) B+
3. Breakfast Club (1985 dramedy; Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald are among five high school students from five different cliques who serve a Saturday morning detention in their school's library.) B+
4. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969 western; Paul Newman and Robert Redford are humorous train and bank robbers who, with occasional assistance from Katharine Ross, stay on the run to evade capture by the lawmen.) A
5. A Farewell To Arms (1932 war romance; Gary Cooper is an American army lieutenant who secretly marries nurse Helen Hayes in Italy, but World War I doesn't make things easy on them.) C
6. The Fault In Our Stars (2014 romance; Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are teenage cancer patients who meet in a support group, fall in love and travel to Amsterdam to meet a favorite author.) B+
7. Gallipoli (1981 war drama; Mel Gibson and Mark Lee are young track stars who volunteer to fight for Australia against the Ottoman Turks in World War I.) B+
8. Harper (1966 detective drama; Paul Newman is a slick LA private dick, hired by super rich Lauren Bacall to track down her alcoholic philandering husband.) C
9. Her (2013 drama; Joaquin Phoenix is a nerdy loner who develops a relationship with the woman "inside" his future (?) word operating system.) B-
10. The Lovers (1958 romance; Jeanne Moreau is married to French business owner Alain Cuny, and dallies with handsome polo player Jose Luis de Vilallonga, but when her car breaks down she turns her attention to the motorist who gave her a ride, Jean-Marc Bory.) C
11. Our Man In Havana (1959 comedy; Alec Guiness is a British vacuum cleaner salesman who gets talked into becoming a spy in Havana, where cigar chomping Ernie Kovacs is the chief of police.) B+
12. Random Harvest (1942 romance; show girl Greer Garson helps Ronald Coleman avoid the authorities as he escapes from an asylum where he was an amnesia patient, but their budding romance is cut short when he's struck by a car and suddenly is able to recall his former life.) B+
13. Red (1994 drama; see the above mini-review.) B
14. Shine A Light (2008 documentary; Martin Scorsese filmed the Rolling Stones performance at New York City's Beacon Theater in the fall of 2006, with Mick Jagger doing almost all the singing, while Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts let the great backup singers fill in the accompanying vocals.) B+
16. Three Days Of The Condor (1975 drama; Robert Redford is an analyst for the CIA who unwittingly uncovers a top secret scheme, then relies on photographer Faye Dunaway to assist him in keeping alive while he gets to the bottom of it.) A-
17. White (1994 dramedy; see the above mini-review.) A-
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