KIESLOWSKI'S THREE COLOURS TRILOGY by ANTIGONE SDROLIA 95080480@95.humber.ac.uk "At this moment, in this café, we are sitting next to strangers. Everyone will get up, leave and go their own way. And then, they'll never meet again. And if they do, they won't realize that it's not for the first time". Krzysztof Kieslowski "Though I speak with the tongues of angels, If I have not love... My words would resound with but a tinkling of a cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy... And understand all mysteries... and all knowledge... And though I have all faith So that I could remove mountains, if I have not love... I am nothing. Love is patient, full of goodness; Love tolerates all things, Aspires to all things, Love never dies, while the prophecies shall be done away, tongues shall be silenced, knowledge shall fade... thus then shall linger only faith, hope, and love... but greatest of these... is love". (the song from Three Colours : Blue) K. Kieslowski was greatly influenced by Polish director Andrej Wajda. In his early years he worked on documentaries which dealt with social problems which became the central issues for the Solidarity movement. His films in general deal with moral conflict, and questions about love, family, identity, freedom and fate. These ideals express the essentials of life, since millions of people have died for those moral ethics. Kieslowski said " We looked very closely at the three ideas, how they functioned in everyday life, but from an individual's point of view. These ideas are contradictory with human nature."1 Kieslowski seems to be searching for something beyond the concrete or the physical and as he admits, he is trying to capture the soul. The "Three Colours" explored the ideas of the French Revolution (it is not at random that the three colours are the ones of the French flag) which are liberty, equality and fraternity in three different countries (France, Poland, Switzerland).The films are not connected in terms of character or plot, however, they do affect each other. The order of the films is also important since White could only fit in the middle due to its lighter tone and Red could only be the last film of the trilogy as its final scenes can only be understood after watching the previous parts.2 At the end of White we are not sure if Karol and Dominique will be together again, but when we see them both at the end of Red we know this for sure.3 Blue, the first in the trilogy, is a film about liberty and is focused on a personal narrative. Julie is the heroine of the story, who has lost her composer husband and daughter in a car crash. She shuts herself from the world and from her friendships, and tries to make a new start in her life. However, a plethora of memories enter her life because of her dead husband's music, which draws her into the lives of Olivier, her husband's assistant, Lucille, a prostitute who lives in the same building as Julie, and Sandrine, a lawyer who was her husband's lover and who is carrying his child. The car crash at the very beginning of the film, frees Julie from her emotional ties and responsibilities, then by her own actions, she manages to finish her husband's unfinished music, and finally ends up free, independent and alone.4 Kieslowski represents Julie's isolation in an excellent way and we can sense the air of melancholy throughout the whole film. She does not appear to have any particular relations with anybody, and she only pays some very "formal" visits to her mother at the clinic. At the end of Blue she is left all alone crying and there is no evidence that she accepts the love of her husband's assistant. The movie is addressed to all those who have experienced a loss of any kind and at the same time have felt both feelings of loss and liberty. Therefore, it is for the feeling of liberty that Julie manages to escape from all her weaknesses and passions. For this reason she treats her husband's mistress in a very generous manner, and the fact that she gives her enormous house to her, and her expected child, is a proof of that. The real meaning of love is liberating, and this is what Kieslowski tries to pass on to his audience. Julie shows her sympathy towards the mistress, but also her understanding of the way the latter feels. After all, she too, has lost the man she loves, and simultaneously the father of her unborn baby. This emotion is very strong and most likely, nobody else would be able to feel and act accordingly. It would be also worth mentioning that she appears as if she has already forgiven her husband. From the point she realises that she still loves him, she manages to liberate herself and consequently to gain the internal stability she is so desperately seeking. Julie's character is mysterious, however, we understand her without the need for monologues or inner voices since she expresses layers of emotions and thoughts through facial and bodily movements. Kieslowski manages to capture the inner emotions of the characters and the viewers straight away understand what he wants to point at, that is the woman, her life and her private methods for coming in terms with her life. Also the feeling of irony is over expressed throughout the film. The woman who loses her husband and child, finds out about her husband's mistress and her pregnancy. The last scene of the film is the one that tries to provide a linked narrative between all the characters in the film. It is also probably the most important and the song, tries to pass on the meaning of love. White, the second film in the trilogy in a way caricatures the black-market where anything from death to respect could be bought. It starts in Paris where a Polish hairdresser, Karol, is being sued for divorce by his French wife, Dominique for not being able to consummate their marriage. Whilst completely broke and playing traditional Polish songs in the French subway, he meets his compatriot Mikolaj who manages to take him back to Poland even without a passport. Karol swears never to be humiliated again and manages to become tremendously rich. After making up his own death, Dominique comes to Poland and is being framed for her ex-husband's murder. However, when he sees her in prison, he realises he still loves her and when she sees him, begins to cry. Kieslowski may have said that White is looking at equality based on a personal level, however, we see Karol, and the Poles in general struggling to adjust to the new way of life. Of course based on the personal level, we see the hero devoting his whole life to achieving equality with Dominique in terms of dignity and self-respect, but once he achieves it he can not stop and is constantly craving for more power. Therefore, the film reflects the view that it is not equality that people desire, but inequality as long as they are at the top of the social ladder. Karol's wife had complete domination over him, and it is due to this fact that he is desperately trying to obtain his self-respect, by seeking financial power. However, it is not for social superiority but strictly for himself, since he truly believes that he is going to win Dominique back when he has achieved equality (personal, and financial) with her. Only then will he be able to perform sexually. Red, is the third and final film in K. Kieslowski's colours trilogy. Due to the fact that it is thematically ambitious, it involves themes of communication, isolation and destiny. It is a movie about a judge distressed with guilt, regret and his secret need to listen to other people's private conversations. Long time ago this Swiss judge had taken a case in which the accused was the person who had 'stolen' the only woman, the judge had ever loved. After passing the sentence, J.L.Trintignant, who satisfactorily plays the role of the judge, spends his days overhearing his neighbours' phone conversations. However, the film's strongest theme is the one concerned with morality, since it is this that brings Valentine (Irene Jacob), the fashion model heroine, closer to the judge when she rescues his dog from a car accident. In their first meeting, she feels sorry for the old man's sad life in solitude, but is also disgusted by his hobby of spying on other people's lives. His explanation is that he needs to be close to the truth since he was not able to do that when he was still a judge. Throughout the film, Kieslowski shows Valentine's isolation (mainly due to the fact that she has reached the dead end of her love affair), and the only person to whom she is turning for comfort is the judge, who is portrayed as a misanthrope and who is giving to the film a primal sense of loss. Meanwhile, there is another parallel story which enacts a young judge, Auguste (whose luck reflects the old judge's one as a young man), and his girlfriend. At this stage, Kieslowski very persuasively reflects the fact of two people facing exactly the same problems and yet how differently they both decide to act. Both of them seem to have been betrayed by a woman, and whilst J.L.Trintignant seems to accept the whole situation without being able to go on with his life, Auguste decides to escape from his destiny and eventually gets involved with Valentine. Kieslowski sets a visual connection between Auguste and Valentine from the beginning of the film since they live only across the street from each other. When Valentine decides to take the ferry to England in order to confront her lover, Auguste is on the same ship, and due to a violent storm the ferry sinks. While watching television, the judge sees the faces of the seven individuals who have survived the disaster among whom are Julie and Olivier, Dominique and Carol and Valentine and Auguste. Throughout the film the main characters are filled with pathos, and appear tangible and emotionally true. Valentine seems to be too much closed up in herself to think about other people. As Kieslowski says, "Valentine wants to think about others but she keeps thinking about others from her own point of view...."5. The judge is the only person who resigns himself to the fact that fraternity is impossible. Valentine has the good will to do good things but often it is for the wrong reasons, and for that purpose the judge questions her as to whether she rescued his dog for her own peace of mind or just because of kindness. Eventually, the optimistic element of the film is that both the judge and Valentine are able to escape from their extreme positions and finally accept the fact that true fraternity is possible. It is clear that all three parts of the trilogy deal with the themes of liberty, equality and fraternity. However, liberty is not only dealt with in the context of Blue, as in White Karol is constantly trying to free himself from the dominance of his wife. Also in Red, Valentine and the judge are trying to free themselves from selfishness and fate. At the same time, fraternity is not obvious only in Red, since in Blue friendship is incredibly important to Julie in order to face her past and to be able to go on with her life. In White, Mikolaj is the person who befriended Karol and helped him to restore his faith in himself and the world. On the other hand, Mikolaj is suicidal at the beginning of his friendship with Karol but eventually, he overcomes his depression as a result of the empathy that Karol shows him. The thematic structure of the trilogy is built around the theme of love and this is what really unites the three parts of the Three Colours Trilogy. Whilst Blue is concerned with family love, White deals with sexual love and Red reflects the platonic love. However, by the end of each film each one of the main characters surrenders to love after trying hard to achieve their targets. In Blue, Julie accepts her love for Olivier and his love for her, in White, Karol and Dominique realise that their love for each other has not died, and finally in Red, the judge realises that he has to accept the love of a friendship. What really makes Kieslowski an extremely interesting artist, is the fact that he works with Intentionalism; meaning that he does not tell us what is really happening, but the actual audience is the one that has to work out, in order to find the real 'solutions' to the different circumstances. The viewer is able to imagine a vast amount of things about the heroes' lives, since we are not informed greatly about their background. In this way, we are given the opportunity to observe the Subjectivity of the protagonists, and see how different people react to various problematic situations, and correspondingly, we are able to question ourselves and create through our own Subjectivity. That is, how we, as different human beings would deal under certain circumstances. To conclude, I would like to end with Hegel's words : "The beginning of subjectivity is the beginning of freedom." 1 An interview with director Krzysztof Kieslowski on the making of the three colors trilogy, Web page : http://pages.ripco.com:8080/-peterjac/intrview.txt 2 A Dissertation by Gerard Sampaio, http://pages.ripco.com:8080/-peterjac/kiesdiss.txt, p.4. 3 ibid., p.4. 4 ibid., p.11. 5 Kieslowski, Krzysztof, Kieslowski on Kieslowski, edited by Danusia Stok, ( London : Faber and Faber Ltd, 1993), pp. 217-218. BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS Kieslowski, Krzysztof, Kieslowski on Kieslowski, edited by Danusia Stok, London : Faber and Faber, 1993. ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS Hattenstone, Simon, Auteur of his own destruction (interview with Kieslowski), The Guardian, November 8, 1994 FILM REVIEWS Malcolm, Derek, True Colours (review of Red), The Guardian, November 10, 1994 INTERNET http://pages.ripco.com:8080/-peterjac/intrview.txt http://pages.ripco.com:8080/-peterjac/kiesdiss.txt http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk...1/film/kieslowski8.html http://web.syr.edu/-ecparkin/blue.html http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk...1/film/kieslowski7.html http://pathfinder.com/@...120/movies/red.html#red