Dissertation: Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colours Trilogy By: Gerard Sampaio, gerard@src.gla.ac.uk Note to the Reader This dissertation is intended for people who have watched The Three Colours Trilogy once or twice and are interested in finding out more about what is a very interesting and densely packed text. By examining, the trilogy form itself, the formal aspects of the three films (primarily cinematography and music) and some important motifs in the trilogy, this dissertation aims to provide some suggestions as to what unites the three films as a whole. Throughout the text the symbol will appear along with a number. These symbols refer to the relevant clips from the trilogy, which are in order on the accompanying video tape. The Director and Co-Writer, Krzysztof Kieslowski Krzysztof Kieslowski was born in Warsaw in June of 1941. Because his father suffered from tuberculosis, Kieslowski spent much of his childhood travelling from one sanatorium town to another along with his mother and sister. After leaving school, Kieslowski had no desire to continue studying so he went to a fireman's training college. He stayed there for just three months and returned home desperate to study. The College for Theatre Technicians (Paástwowe Liceum Techniki Teatralnej) was the first institution that accepted him. Perhaps the only reason that he got in was that his parents had approached a distant uncle, that Kieslowski had not known previously, who was the director of the college. Initially Kieslowski had ambitions of being a theatre director rather than a film director. Theatre directors in Poland at that time needed some form of higher education and, out of a number of options, Kieslowski chose to attempt to study at film school. "Why not study at film school to be a film director, as a way of becoming a theatre director. They're both directors."1 Kieslowski failed twice to get into lodzFilm School each time having to wait a year to try again. He worked for a year in the Department of Culture at the council in Zoliborz and also in a theatre as a dresser. After his second rejection from Film School, Kieslowski's main priority was staying out of the army and to do so he had to spend most of his time studying. He went to teachers' training college and studied drawing for a year, pretending that he wanted to be an art teacher. He was finally categorised as unfit for military service even in the event of war after a long time convincing the board of examiners that he had a schizophrenia duplex. Kieslowski spent ten days being interrogated in a military hospital and, four days after his release, he began his third attempt at the two week diet of exams to get into lodzFilm School. This time he succeeded. At lodã, he was taught about the history of cinema, photography and how to work with actors. Kieslowski was able to watch and talk about many films that were kept from the Polish public. He also made one or two films each year, both features and documentaries mostly from his own scripts. Kieslowski's graduating film, Z Miasta lodzi/From the City of lodz(1969), was actually a professional production made at the State Documentary Film Studios in Warsaw, funded jointly by the school and the studios. This meant that his transition into professionalism went very smoothly. Over the next ten years Kieslowski directed thirteen documentaries, one drama documentary, three Television Dramas and two commissioned films. Over the following eight years (until Dekalog/The Decalogue (1988)) he directed only three documentaries and three features including Bez Koáca/No End (1984) which was the first film that he co-wrote with Krzyzstof Piesiewicz (co-writer of the Three Colours Trilogy). In 1988 Krzyzstof Kieslowski made his first real impact on the international film world with The Decalogue, a series of ten short dramas (all approximately 55 minutes long) based loosely on the ten commandments. These were again co-written by Piesiewicz and two of them were produced in two different versions, one for a cinema release (Krótki Film O Zabijaniu/A short Film about Killing (1988) and Krótki Film O Mièosci/A Short Film about Love (1988)) and one for television (Decalogues 5 & 6). The ten stories were all centred around the same housing estate in Warsaw and deal with themes such as guilt, suspicion, obsession and reconciliation. La Double vie de Veronique/The Double Life of Veronique (1991) was Kieslowski's first experience of working outside of Poland and with 'Western' money. It tells the story of two identical young women who are each unaware of the other's existence although they both sense that they are not alone in the world. Veronique lives in France, Weronika in Poland. Weronika, who sings beautifully but suffers from a heart condition, has to chose whether to continue to sing despite the danger it puts her life in. After winning a singing competition the decision is made but she soon suffers a heart attack and dies during her first concert. Only after Weronika's death does Veronique sense that she had a double and she shares her wisdom when she rejects a singing career, thus saving her own life. The character of a woman who sings beautifully but suffers from a week heart was originally created in Decalogue 9. Biography of Krzysztof Piesiewicz Krzysztof Piesiewicz was born in Warsaw on the 25th of October 1945. He graduated with a law degree from Warsaw University in 1970. After three years of apprenticeship for the bar, he decided to specialise in criminal law. After martial law was declared in Poland in December of 1981, Piesiewicz decided to get more involved in political cases, defending Solidarity activists. He was also one of the prosecuting attorneys during the trial of the security policemen accused of the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko. Piesiewicz and Kieslowski met for the first time in 1982 when Kieslowski wanted to make a documentary on political trials under the martial law. Kieslowski later asked him for advice on a film he was planning about his experiences in release (Krótki Film O Zabijaniu/A short Film about Killing (1988) and Krótki Film O Mièosci/A Short Film about Love (1988)) and one for television (Decalogues 5 & 6). The ten stories were all centred around the same housing estate in Warsaw and deal with themes such as guilt, suspicion, obsession and reconciliation. La Double vie de Veronique/The Double Life of Veronique (1991) was Kieslowski's first experience of working outside of Poland and with 'Western' money. It tells the story of two identical young women who are each unaware of the other's existence although they both sense that they are not alone in the world. Veronique lives in France, Weronika in Poland. Weronika, who sings beautifully but suffers from a heart condition, has to chose whether to continue to sing despite the danger it puts her life in. After winning a singing competition the decision is made but she soon suffers a heart attack and dies during her first concert. Only after Weronika's death does Veronique sense that she had a double and she shares her wisdom when she rejects a singing career, thus saving her own life. The character of a woman who sings beautifully but suffers from a week heart was originally created in Decalogue 9. Biography of Krzysztof Piesiewicz Krzysztof Piesiewicz was born in Warsaw on the 25th of October 1945. He graduated with a law degree from Warsaw University in 1970. After three years of apprenticeship for the bar, he decided to specialise in criminal law. After martial law was declared in Poland in December of 1981, Piesiewicz decided to get more involved in political cases, defending Solidarity activists. He was also one of the prosecuting attorneys during the trial of the security policemen accused of the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko. Piesiewicz and Kieslowski met for the first time in 1982 when Kieslowski wanted to make a documentary on political trials under the martial law. Kieslowski later asked him for advice on a film he was planning about his experiences in den Budenmayer is actually just Preisner's alter-ego. However the Oxford University press did not believe Kieslowski when he wrote back to them to tell them this and they persisted in asking Kieslowski for the information for some time. 1 Krzysztof Kieslowski, Danusia Stok (ed.), Kieslowski on Kieslowski, (Faber and Faber Limited, 1993) p. 23 The Production of the Trilogy. Each of the scripts went through four versions plus an additional version that only dealt with dialogue. Krzyzstof Kieslowski does not speak French and so initially there was to be a dialogue writer. Instead,Marcin Latallo was hired to translate the dialogue with the correct idioms. The scripts for all three films were completed six months before shooting began to allow for the difficulties of finding locations in three different countries. As with Decalogue, the same people were responsible for the sound, set design and music for all of the films and there was a different director of photography for each. The editing began only a week after the shooting and continued even through the breaks. Blue was shot from September to November 1992. In Blue the courtroom that Julie interrupts by accident is the same one that Karol is in, in White. This overlap, and the difficulty of shooting in a Paris courtroom, meant that the shooting of White began immediately after Blue. Thirty percent was shot in Paris before the crew went to Poland to complete it. After merely ten days of rest the crew travelled to Geneva to shoot Red which took from March to May of 1993 to complete. THE TRILOGY FORM An examinaton of how each part of the Three Colours Trilogy is affected by the context of being one part of a greater whole. A trilogy of films is a very rare occurrence. Rarer still are trilogies that were intended to be trilogies from their inception. Hollywood trilogies are most often just one film with two sequels such as Lethal Weapon (1987, Richard Donner) and Alien (1979, Ridley Scott). The writers and directors of these pseudo-trilogies are often changed between films and only the studio that produced them remains the same. The reason for the rarity of European or independent sector trilogies, and the version of trilogies that are produced in Hollywood, is the same: money. Not enough money is available in the European or independent sectors to finance a trilogy and, in Hollywood, a sequel or two sequels is just a simple way to make some money by cashing in on a successful formula. This means that Hollywood trilogies or series of films are generally formulaic. The Three Colours Trilogy is therefore a remarkable feat. If it had not been for the success of The Double life of Veronique, Krzyzstof Kieslowski would not have had the power to command such a budget. Even still, Marin Karmitz (the producer) did exceptionally well to raise the money although, without the new infrastructure for co-productions between European Countries, making the trilogy would have been impossible. How then does the context of a trilogy, specifically this kind of trilogy, affect the reception of the three constituent parts? The most obvious and perhaps important effect, is simply, that with a bigger canvas, the film-maker is not forced to abbreviate or restrict their ideas quite as much as usual. This means that bigger topics can be tackled, such as liberty, equality and fraternity. The novelty value of The Three Colours Trilogy was a financial bonus. Although the trilogy did not break any records for the amount of money it made, for a European production it did fairly well. The box office attendance for White and Red in particular was helped by the context of the trilogy as, after seeing one part of any series, people are always more likely to watch the next part. The neat nature of the trilogy with its easy to remember themes and colours meant that it was accessible to more people than would have been the case for each film on its own. Some parts of the Odeon cinema chain showed the whole trilogy as a special one-off event constituting an unusual crossover between the mainstream and art house cinemas. When Blue was released, it was always stressed that it was the first part of a trilogy. How the trilogywas supposed to cohere was also made clear, and so a thematic guideline was provided for the audience. Whenever a film is released, the publicity material provided to reviewers and critics will always suggest something about the thematic content of a film but generally critics will make their own minds up. However, the structure of The Three Colours Trilogy, was so novel to most people that the rough outline of the tricolour themes was always mentioned when the films were written or talked about in the press. This meant that people approached the films with certain expectations. They expected Blue to be about liberty, White to be about equality and Red to be about fraternity. Unless you subscribe to a particularly extreme critical theory, most people will accept that an audience can find different dominant themes in any given text. With The Three Colours Trilogy however, people approached the films looking for specific themes and they generally found them. Each part of the trilogy can be watched by itself. However, when they are watched together, the three films do affect each other. There ceases to be simply a beginning, middle and end to each film as they become part of a whole. The formula, thesis plus antithesis resulting in synthesis does not explain the relationship between these three films. The order of the films is still important as White could only fit in the middle due to its generally lighter tone and Red could only be the last film as its final scenes can only really be understood after watching the previous two parts. White quite simply has a different ending depending on whether you have seen Red or not. At the end of White we do not know if Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) and Dominique (Julie Delpy) will be reunited although the possibility is suggested. When we see them together at the end of Red we know this for sure. However, Red does not simply change the ending of White, instead, The ending of White does not really happen until the end of Red. The same is true for Blue and so the relationship between the films seems to be more triangular than linear. FORMAL ASPECTS A look at the important formal aspects of the trilogy with particular reference to cinematography and music. When Krzyzstof Kieslowski talks about the film-making process, and specifically the making of The Three Colours Trilogy, he refers to it in terms of a group collaboration rather than a work of personal creation or authorship. When he talks about his work, he always stresses that he is always open to ideas from every part of the cast and crew. "I'm always expecting people to tell me something simply because I often think that they know better than I do. I expect it from actors cameramen, soundmen, editors, electricians, assistants, everyone."1 Kieslowski's most important and consistent collaborations are with his co-writer, Krzyzstof Piesiewicz and the composer for all three films, Zbigniew Preisner. The idea for the trilogy was Piesiewicz's, as was the idea for the Decalogue so the importance of his input is undoubted. The way that Kieslowski works with Zbigniew Preisner is quite unusual. Rather than shooting the film and then hiring a composer to write the score, Preisner is involved from the script stage and so the music is a more integral part of the film-making process. Kieslowski also gives Preisner control over which scenes need music and which don't. "I often want to put music where he (Preisner) says it would sound absurd, and there are scenes where I don't imagine there being music but which he thinks should have music, so we put the music in. He is definitely more sensitive in this area than I am."2 Different lighting cameramen were used in each part of the trilogy. It is interesting that Kieslowski does not credit them with as much flexibility as he does Preisner. However, the way that he describes how he selected the cameramen gives an indication as to how he regards the creative process. He didn't choose people that would carry out his orders exactly as he wished. Instead he employed people appropriate to the ideas that he wished to convey. Again it is the finished work, and not an egotistical concern for control, that is apparently foremost in Kieslowski's mind. "When I decided to work with them (the cameramen), I bore in mind the needs of the films, their dramaturgy, their structure and so on."3 Kieslowski would probably shun the title of auteur of his films both because of his view of film-making as a collaborative process, and because of the way in which he feels that he is only a guardian of the ideas in his films, that he must serve appropriately rather than a creator of them. His view of authorship, as ambiguous and vague, apparently manifests itself in Blue as we never find out just how important Julie (Juliette Binoche was in her husbands compositions. As Kieslowski puts it "Maybe she's one of those people who aren't able to write a single sheet of music but is wonderful in correcting a sheet that has already been written. She sees everything, has an excellent analytical mind and has a great talent for improving things. The written sheet of music isn't bad but when she's improved it is excellent. But it's not all that important whether she's the co-author or author because what has been corrected is better than it was before."4 Kieslowski used every technique at his disposal to make the audience of Blue feel as if they were inside Julie's mind looking out at the world as she sees it. She is in every scene except the very beginning and the very end and at every opportunity, Kieslowski makes us see what she sees and hear what she hears. This mood of introspection is created by the way that our attention is always with Julie even when there are other characters in the scene. When you expect there to be classic shot/reverse-shot cutting, that shows both characters as they talk, we instead see much more of Julie than whoever she is talking to. We repeatedly see her face, and the reaction on it as someone else speaks to her. When she sees a man getting beaten up in the street, and then hears the fight continue in her building, we only hear the sounds of the fight from off-screen and our attention is with Julie's reaction. The man getting beaten up has very little plot significance and it is clearly Julie's reaction to it that is the import event. This is also the case when Lucille (Charlotte Very) describes how she also had a blue glass mobile like the one that Julie has. The point of view shots in blue are irregular but often have the same effect, again creating the mood of introspection. The close-ups of the shadows moving around the coffee cup and the sugar cube soaking up the coffee, both illustrate how Julie seems to be training herself to slip into an almost trance-like state to avoid the rest of the world which she doesn't want to face. The moments when Julie is forced to come back from her own world to the real one, occur when she is forced to really interact with another person. It is then that the celebrated fades to black occur in the middle of a scene. This innovative technique is perhaps the most striking and effective way that Kieslowski shows how Julie's mind is working. It reinforces Julie's apparent ability to cut herself off from her conscious mind for most of the time. It is not just visually that Julie's world is expressed in Blue, the music plays a great part as well. In most films the musical score is always non-diegetic but in Blue it is the opposite. The music is always coming from within Julie's mind. It either starts when she reads a piece of music or when it forces itself upon her much to her dismay. When she reads a scrap of the music as she stands at the piano, the visuals and the music are in complete union as a lens exist is at the beginning of the film where Karol is at his most pathetic. It is also at this point that Kieslowski uses a sequence that could be right out of a silent Chaplin film. Using no dialogue, Kieslowski vividly and succinctly outlines how the world is treating Karol. As we see the worn state of his shoeswe can gauge his financial situation and then, as he looks up and smiles at a pigeon flying over head, we see that he is the sort of person that appreciates the simple beauty of a bird in flight. When it deposits some excrement on his shoulder it is clear that he is not going to have a good day. Later, when Karol has his cash card confiscated by a cash machine, the screen which tells him the news appears like an inter-title from silent film. Kieslowski shows that he has the ability to use film techniques most often ignored in favour of apparently more easily digestible 'spoon feeding' techniques used in most contemporary films. Rather than forcing his audience to think, Kieslowski merely allows them to do so thus making the experience of watching one of his films less passive and more personal for the viewer. If introspection is the primary mood of Blue in terms of the cinematography and music, then voyeurism is the equivalent in Red. Obviously this is coherent with the narrative in which the judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) eavesdrops on his neighbours' lives. Unlike in Blue and White, there is not one single principal character who is in every scene. In Red the camera moves between characters revealing the connections between them that they themselves are unaware of. Characters are seen through windows with a regularity that suggests that it is intentional. The young judge witnesses his girlfriend's infidelity through a window and later sees her with her new lover through a restaurant widow. Also, when Valentine (Irene Jacob) chases after Rita the dog there is a shot which starts looking out through a shop window out at the street and then pans to the open door of the shop as Valentine runs past. Again, the viewer is made to feel like a voyeur. The effect of this is also coherent with the general metaphysical aspect of the film as we are put in the omniscient position and we are the only people apparently able to see the grand scheme of things. This effect is particularly strong when the camera swings on a crane between Valentine and Auguste's (the young lawyer, Jean-Pierre Lorit) apartments . Similarly, when Valentine first enters the judge's house, there is what at first appears to be a point of view that turns rounds on Valentine. The viewer is also made to feel as if they are in the room when the camera lurches forward on inanimate objects. The judge's house is constructed as a metaphysical epicentre by the use of light. The sun seems to be perpetually setting, casting golden light on Valentine and the judge. This connotes the judge's mood as he feels that he has left the best, brightest part of his life behind him and has only the dark ahead of him. The judge's eavesdropping also makes his house seem like the point where all of the lives, of the people who live around him, cross over. When they find out that he has been listening to their conversations, their reaction is to attack his house by breaking the windows. The musical score in Red takes the form of a bolero. The two motifs are heard separately and together and the diegetic music during the Valentine's fashion show that the judge watches, is related to these motifs. The most intriguing thing about the music is that in the film it is attributed to Van Den Budenmayer1 . Valentine sees an album sleeve with his name on it on the judge's table and is so curious about it that she goes to a music shop to listen to it. When she listens to the compact disc in the shop, we find that it is the music that we have been listening to all along. By this point Valentine has got over her initial reaction of repulsion towards the judge and is now very intrigued by him. Seeking out the music seems to be an attempt by Valentine to get to know the judge better, but the fact that she was unable to buy the CD, suggests that it is a more difficult task than she first thought. With different lighting cameramen used for each part of the trilogy, it would seem fruitless to look for similarities with regard to their cinematography. However, there are pronounced visual similarities between the films. One of the simplest is the way that each film starts. At the beginning of each film there is a sequence depicting mechanical action. In Blue it is the mechanics of the car that are shown in detail. In White we see Karol's case moving along on an Airport conveyer belt. In Red there is the striking sequence which follows the path of a phone call underground along the cable's and underwater2 . Each of these show tangible mechanical realities that we generally pay little or no attention to but which have enormous consequences both in general and specifically in these films. The car crash at the start of blue is the most important event in the film and without the brake fluid leaking it would not have happened. The narrative of Red is completely reliant on telephone technology and again Kieslowski is reminding us of something very important that we do not give much thought to. The final shots of the three parts of the Three Colours Trilogy are also similar as they each have someone looking out of a window and crying. In Blue Julie seems to looking back at the past that she has finally confronted an left behind. In White, Dominique and Karol are looking at each other through a window as they finally realise their love for each other. In Red the judge is looking out at a world that he has been trying to shut out for some time. The windows seem to be symbols for the insurmountable barriers that each of the characters have been struggling to overcome throughout the films. As they look through the windows, they seem to be resigning themselves to the fact that there is no point in struggling on in the way that they have been, as they just have to accept things the way they are. Although the atmosphere at the end of Blue and Red could not be described as that of defeat, the characters have abandoned what they previously have struggled for and in White, Karol and Dominique also realise that their struggle have been futile. Whether Kieslowski really made the Three Colours Trilogy about liberty, equality and fraternity is open to debate. However, that he used the three colours, blue, white and red, is certain. The use of colour is most blatant in Blue, as blue light, accompanied by music, regularly shines on Julie's face. The light here is almost supernatural and seems to be the suppressed memories of Julie's past leaking out. When Julie visits the swimming pool, a deep blue filter is used making the water and the white tiled walls seem blue in colour. The pool is strangely completely empty when Julie swims there and it would not seem unreasonable to speculate that these sequences are supposed to be dreams. Whether or not they are, it does seem as if Julie is trying to wash the blue colour out of her. When Lucille visits her at the pool there is no blue filter used and we see the pool in its natural colouration. This reinforces the idea that the blue light is only in Julie's mind. The overall effect of the blue lights and filters is the general feel of coldness that pervades in the film. There is a brief moment of warmth as Julie as Julie feels the sun on her face, but otherwise the colour temperature is very low which suits Julie's state of isolation. There are very few moments in White when the colour white is exploited in the way that the colour blue is in Blue. The idyllic flashbacks of Karol and Dominique's wedding are slightly overexposed to give a white effect. These moments are quite ironic as we know that the apparent bliss did not last long. When Karol and Dominique are finally reunited and have sex, the screen turns completely white as Dominique has and orgasm and so the colour white would seem to represent the perfect union that exists between Karol and Dominique. When Karol arrives back in Poland the white snow dominates the frame and the bleak vista of decaying garbage half covered in snow is cold and unwelcoming. This image of Poland is maintained throughout the Polish part of the film as shades of white and grey pervade throughout. The colour white also has connotations of sterility and we find this in White in the way that it lacks the spiritual or metaphysical elements present in Blue and Red. The colour red appears in Red innumerable times but these appearances are especially noticeable because of our expectation of them. Most of the furnishings in Valentines apartment are red and she often wears at least one item of red clothing. Auguste's car is red, as is the dog's leash, Valentine's boyfriend's jacket and of course the poster that she poses for. All of the little red details in the film give it a much warmer look than Blue or White and arguably this is matched in its content. However, Kieslowski does say that the colour red is not decorative, "...it plays a dramaturgic role: the colour means something. For example, when Valentine sleeps with her fiancé's red jacket, the red signifies memory, the need of somebody."3 It would seem that Kieslowski is not suggesting that the colour red always signifies memory but that the red objects and backgrounds always have some sort of significance. The association between Valentine and the colour red is very strong as is the association between Auguste and the colour red. Therefore, an association between Valentine and Auguste is constructed. We are made to feel that they could be soul mates, if they ever managed to get together, as they are both 'red' people. The use of the colours blue, white and red, is just another example of the way that Kieslowski uses techniques available to any film director that other directors are unwilling or unable to employ. 1Van Den BudenMayer is mentioned in The Decalogue, The Double Life of Veronique, and in Blue. Also see Appendix A for information on Van Den Budenmayer. 2It seems plausible that this sequence was inspired by the opening scenes of Sunday Bloody Sunday (Dir. John Schlesinger, UK 1971) IMPORTANT MOTIFS: METAPHYSICS An analysis of the way in which the realm of the metaphysic is exploited in the TheThree Colours Trilogy. 'Metaphysical' is a word used in many different contexts to mean many different things. In the context of The Three Colours Trilogy, it is simplest, and of most use to consider the term as describing something pertaining to a world beyond the ordinary, easily perceptible, physical world that we all inhabit. Blue is a film that can be watched repeatedly, revealing new subtleties each time because much of the action happens on a metaphysical plane. This action makes feint impressions on the physical world, visibly with blue light and audibly with music. The spectral sights and sounds could be generated externally by some supreme being or guardian, or internally by the sub-conscious. The latter would seem to be the nearer to the truth but still the quasi-scientific notion of the sub-conscious is not sufficient. It does seem to be consistent with the way in which whatever it is that is inside of Julie, that is causing the light and music, is clearly trying to break out. Also, the association between the sub-conscious mind and the creative process is consistent with Julie's situation. However, the sights and sounds definitely have a more transcendental origin and a deeper significance. The existence of a soul is never a matter of debate in Blue, or in the rest of the trilogy, but some sort of understanding and acceptance of the concept is taken for granted. In Blue, the soul functions to encourage Julie, quite forcibly, to make a painful journey forward that involves completing some unfinished business of the past. This is manifested in the reluctance with which Julie finishes the concert for the unification of Europe. At first she tries to destroy all records of it but eventually the music itself, which is always inside of her, forces her to complete the work and get on with her life. The music, usually accompanied by the blue light, envelops Julie when her defences are down. As she is convalescing after the car accident, the music breaks through for the first time as she dozes off. The situation is repeated late r when she is locked out of her flat and is forced to sleep on the stairs. Later, as Julie is about to climb out of the swimming pool, the music returns and she re-submerges in the water, covering her ears in an attempt to escape from it. The pain on this occasion seems almost too much to bear. The next time that Julie visits the swimming pool she stays underwater for a long time but eventually she has to come back up gasping for air. It is after this that Julie succumbs to the pressure and starts to revise the unfinished concert, perhaps realising that she cannot hold her breath forever, hiding underwater from the light and music. In the last scenes of Blue, we finally hear the music in full flow and at the same time we see the people that helped, intentionally and unintentionally, to help Julie free herself and the music. Antoine, the boy who witnessed the car crash and later returned the necklace, and Lucille the prostitute, are both bathed in Julie's blue light. This shows that the bond between them exists on a higher plane than just the physical and emotional. Similarly, we see the blue ultrasound of Patrice's son in his mistress' womb. In the final shot, Julie no longer resists the music and a blue mist (actually the reflection of tree leaves on the window) begins to engulf her, also without any resistance. Julie's soul has broken free after she tried to contain it and in turn it has freed Julie. The difference in style between the Polish and French parts of The Double Life of Veronique is very noticeable. Kieslowski himself sums it up best by describing the Polish part as being narrated synthetically and the French part as being narrated analytically.1 What he means by this is that in the Polish part, a year and a half of the heroine's life is condensed into short episodes which run to about half an hour. The French part is analytically narrated because our attention is always with the characters' state of mind which is described with ambience and long scenes. The latter narrative style is certainly the case with Blue, and to a slightly lesser extent with Red, and it is a style more conducive to metaphysical action than the synthetic episodic style. White is more episodic than Blue or Red and consequently there is far less room for metaphysical concerns. The demands of the plot and the social commentary require that the action of the film remains exclusively on one level. There are slight deviations such as Karol's relentless bad luck in Paris that sees everything possible go against him. There is also Karol's relationships with the alabaster bust that reminds him of Dominique, and the two franc piece that is the only money that he returns to Poland with. However, both of these seem to be simply psychological and exist only in Karol's mind. There is never the sense, as in Blue and Red, that unknown forces are at work other than the characters own motives. Although Blue and Red both pay attention to the metaphysical, they do so in very different ways. Blue is concerned very much with internal concerns such as the soul, whereas Red is concerned much more with external concerns such as fate and destiny. The similarities in the treatment of these concepts are clear between The Double Life of Veronique and Red. In The Double Life of Veronique there are two identical people living simultaneously in different countries, ignorant of each other except for strong intuitive feelings. In Red, the characters' doubles are separated by a generation rather than geography. Auguste is reliving the judge's life as a young man, even down to the details about the dropped book revealing the solution to an exam question. The most important similarity is the betrayal of Auguste by his girlfriend, a situation that has already happened to the judge. It is only very near the end of the film that the judge tells Valentine the whole although she already has a precognition of it. This is not the only intuitive deduction that takes place between Valentine and the judge. He guesses that someone close to her is involved with drugs and he also dreams about her future happiness. Both the judge and Valentine seem to be comfortable with an acceptance of fate and destiny. On one level this seems to be simply superstition as Valentine perceives winning a pile of Francs from the cafe's 'one-armed bandit' as a bad omen. This incident also refers back to the beginning of Blue when Antoine the hitch hiker, after repeatedly failing, succeeds with his simple stick and ball game and immediately witnesses the car crash. Auguste also decides on what to do one evening with the toss of a coin. The judge, who is eavesdropping on Auguste as he does this, seems to take pleasure from mimicking his action (presumably getting the same result) as if it was something that he used to do himself. The understanding of fate that Valentine and the judge seem to share goes beyond superstition. It is a general belief in the way that the world works. Although complex and unpredictable, this system makes more sense to the judge than our systems of justice and punishment. This can clearly be extended to cover systems of government and social control. As the judge describes the lives of his neighbours, that he has learnt about from his eavesdropping, he seems uncannily certain about how they are going to develop and forces Valentine to accept that intervention is useless. However, in Red events are not simply predestined. Sometimes the wrong people fall in love and sometimes soul mates never meet each other. On a more optimistic note, when events and circumstances are repeated, the outcome can change for the better. Towards the end of Red there is another rejection of predestination as the weather forecast turns out to be completely wrong. If it wasn't for the storm, which caused the ferry to capsize, Valentine and Auguste might still not have met. The power to control a storm comes straight out of Shakespeare's Tempest, including the arrival of drenched characters on a shore. Kieslowski is clearly playing with how far he can stretch the audience's acceptance of the metaphysical world that he has conjured up for them. As always, he leaves a lot to the discretion of the audience and in this case we are left to decide who is Prospero, Kieslowski or the judge. There was much speculation in the press after the release of Red that the judge is in fact a self portrait by Kieslowski and the similarities (Kieslowski's temporary early retirement, age and reclusive persona) are obvious. Kieslowski also seems to be commenting on his role as a film-maker as being like that of a puppeteer, manipulating his characters and their world in whatever way he wants. By doing so, Kieslowski is highlighting the difference between the real world and the world of his films, reminding the audience that they are only films. This self consciousness was also present in The Double Life of Veronique when Alexendre, the man who Veronique at first believes is her soul mate, shatters her illusion by using her life as the basis of a story for a book. He even calls it 'The Double life of.....' unsure of which name to use. Veronique sees this as a gross abuse of their intimacy and leaves him. Alexendre is a puppeteer as well as a writer by profession, and again Kieslowski appears to be reminding the audience that the characters and stories that he presents are just puppets, controlled entirely by the strings that he pulls. IMPORTANT MOTIFS: COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY An look at the importance and relevance of communication technology in The Three Colours Trilogy Modern technology, communication technology in particular, is very visible throughout the Three Colours Trilogy. The power of television is explored repeatedly in Blue. When Julie is recovering from the car crash near the beginning of the film, she watches the funeral of her husband and daughter on a tiny television. Theoretically, the technology is enabling Julie to be present at something that she otherwise could not be. However, the impersonality of the little screen actually distances Julie from the funeral . The link is present visually and audibly but not emotionally and it provides the first opportunity for Julie to detach herself from the reality of her situation. This idea of a powerful medium of communication actually distancing people instead of uniting them resurfaces later when Julie tries to talk to her senile mother. Communication between Julie and her mother is difficult enough but the TV that Julie's mother is watching seems to hypnotise her and withdraw her from the outside world. On the screen that she is watching we see slow motion bungee jumping, in one instance involving a man of about seventy years old. Julie's mother comments that by way of her TV set she can, "...see the whole world..." which seems highly ironic considering the absurdityof what she is watching. The idea that the medium of television can achieve what Julie's mother suggests but is most often misused, is supported by Kieslowski himself when he says, "The reason why television is the way it is, isn't because the viewers are slow-witted but because the editors think they are....television in most countries - including America - is as idiotic as it is because the editors think people are idiots. I don't think people are idiots and that's why I treat both audiences equally seriously."1 Television also distances Julie from her past by stealing it from her. Because the funeral of her husband and daughter is shown on television, it becomes public property as the rest of the public have the same, commentated on, view of the funeral service. Later, it is through television that Julie learns of her husband's mistress when she sees pictures of them together. Again something personal and private has been exposed to the world and made public property. The situation is similar in Red when Valentine learns of her brother's heroin habit through a newspaper article. Before she has had time even to read the article someone else recognises the picture and asks her about it. The media is certainly not portrayed favourably in the Three Colours Trilogy and is usually seen to cause the dilution and dissipation of personal relationships. The use of the telephone is quite different. The telephone is seen as a means of remote control between people in a relationship. In Blue, Julie uses the telephone to effectively control her developing relationship with Olivier. She summons him by telephone whenever she wants him and he comes running to her. In White, the telephone is used first by Dominique to humiliate Karol when he phones her whilst she is having sex with another man, and later she hangs up the phone when he calls her denying him the contact that he wanted. In Red, Valentine is conducting a long distance relationship with her boyfriend Michel by telephone. He seems to regard the telephone as an opportunity to lie and deceive and it is clear from their conversations that he is very jealous and is suspicious of Valentine's actions in his absence. Also in Red, Auguste conducts his relationship with his girlfriend largely by means of the telephone but this time the woman on the other end really is deceiving him. The judge's abuse of the telephone system in Red provides the strongest examination of its power for deception. He listens in as a married man conducts a homosexual affair on the telephone and also as a mother tries in vain to con her daughter into visiting her. This illustrates a view that a lot goes on under the surface of people's everyday lives that even people close to them are unaware of. It would seem that this does not just mean illicit affairs but also what the people are going through on a deeper personal level. The abilities that communication technology seems to give people in the Three Colours Trilogy are presented as being very hollow. Julie's ability to watch the funeral on television is no substitute for her actually being there and neither is her mother's ability to 'see the world' via her television from the insular isolation of her nursing home. Real life is always presented as a far more complexand beautiful thing than any form of technology can cope with. Phone conversations in the trilogy can never convey as much information as a face to face conversation and in White, Karol comments that Dominique's orgasm that he heard when he phoned her in Paris was a pale imitation of the one that she had in Poland when they were reunited after his faked death. In Red, the judge at first prefers his new electronic courtroom, that lets him hear private phone conversations, to his old one. Eventually he realises that neither can really satisfy him or provide him with a convincing version of justice. The stunning opening sequence of Red is very different to the general style of the film and serves to remind us of the startling feats of technology that we take for granted. However, by the end of the film, and the trilogy, we are perhaps slightly more aware and suspicious of technology's limitations. Even when the Three Colours Trilogy deals with intimate personal subjects, Kieslowski still paints a picture of the wider world. There is a clear connection between the metaphysical that he conjures up and the technological reality that he reminds us of. The combination of these two elements results in a tremendous sense of interconnectedness and completeness within and between his films. 1Kieslowski, Stok. p.153 CONCLUSION: THE THEMATIC UNION OF THE TRILOGY An assessment of how the three parts of the trilogy are united by their themes, with particular reference to whether liberty, equality and fraternity are really at the core of this union. "Blue, white red: liberty, quality, fraternity. It was Pieso's1 idea that having tried to film the Decalogue, why shouldn't we try liberty, equality and fraternity... Why not try to see how the Ten Commandments function today, what our attitude to them is and how the three words, liberty, equality and fraternity function today? - on a very human, intimate and personal plane not a philosophical, let alone a political or social one. The West has implemented these concept, on a political or social plane, but it's an entirely different matter on a personal plane. And that's why we thought of these films."2 From this quote from Krzyzstof Kieslowski, it is clear what the initial idea was behind Three Colours Trilogy. Whether this idea was carried through to the finished films is another question entirely. If you look to find an examination of the concept of liberty in Blue then you will easily find it. The car crash at the very beginning of the film frees Julie from most of her emotional ties and responsibilities, then by her own actions, Julie finishes the job leaving her completely free, independent and alone. After a while she starts to function comfortably in this new set-up. Julie seems quite content as she goes for walks and sits in her favourite cafe. Eventually, cracks appear in her artificial world and she is forced to abandon it. Jealousy, memory and friendship all help to drag Julie back into the real world which she must face, thus she surrenders her freedom. The primary question that Kieslowski asks about liberty, equality and fraternity is whether in reality, on a personal level, we really want them. In Blue, Julie discovers that she must find a balance between the liberty that she acquired through isolation and the companionship and support that she needs. Julie eventually has to accept that complete liberty is more of a prison than the relationships and emotions that she has tried to block out. Kieslowski may be quoted as saying that equality was to be examined purely on a personal level, but in White it is clearly looked at on a social plane also. This is where most of the comedy is derived from in White as we see Karol, and the Polish people in general, scrambling to adjust to a new social and economic framework. On the personal level, we see Karol devote his life to achieving equality with Dominique in terms of dignity and self-respect. Once he does this he cannot stop, and he does more than just redress the balance as he tries to achieve supremacy. Again Kieslowski shows that people appear not to really want equality, a concept that has been fought for and esteemed for centuries. It is of course inequality that people desire as long as they are at the higher end of the spectrum. If Blue and White appear to respectively reject the notion that liberty and equality are actually sought after and attainable in the real world, then Red portrays the concept of fraternity in a slightly different way. The main difference is that in Red, fraternity is shown to be attainable although not by everyone. Most of the characters, Valentine in particular, seem to be too caught up in themselves to really think about other people. As Kieslowski himself puts it, "Valentine wants to think about others but she keeps thinking about others from her own point of view... There's something beautiful in the fact that we can give something of ourselves. But if it turns out that while giving of ourselves we are doing so to have a better opinion of ourselves then immediately there's a blemish on this beauty. Is this beauty pure? Or is it always a little marred? That's the question the film asks.".3 Only the judge seems to be really conscious of this, perhaps because he has so little regard for himself. At one extreme, the judge resigns himself to the fact that fraternity is impossible. At the other extreme, Valentine wants to do good things but usually for the wrong reasons. The judge points this out when he questions Valentine as to why she really rescued the dog that she ran over. He questions whether it was not really for her own peace of mind rather than just a pure act of kindness. Eventually both the judge and Valentine are drawn in from their extreme positions and find that a level of true fraternity is possible. It does however exist on a more metaphysical plane than a simply personal one. The three parts of the Three Colours Trilogy do seem to be coherent with the themes of liberty, equality and fraternity. However, much of this neat and tidy coherence is a result of the construction of the viewer's expectations as I have already outlined in the secton entitled, 'The Trilogy Form'. If you dare to stray from this rather simplistic interpretation, then it becomes clear that the three parts of the trilogy are not as coherent with the themes of liberty, equality and fraternity as they seem at first. Liberty is not only dealt with in Blue. In White, Karol is struggling to free himself from the dominance of his spouse. In Red, Valentine and the judge struggle to become free of the restraints of selfishness and fate. Similarly, fraternity is not solely the concern of Red. In Blue friendship is tremendously important to Julie being able to face the past and the truth. In White, Karol's friendship with Mikolaj (Janusz Gajos) restores his faith in himself and the world. Mikolaj is suicidal when he meets Karol but eventually, as a result of the empathy that Karol shows him, he overcomes his extreme depression. It seems that when you look at liberty, equality and fraternity on a personal plane they become so interdependent that they become almost indiscernible. Each term is so wide reaching and general that they overlap to a great extent. The result of this is that all three parts of the trilogy are about much the same thing and so they are related more as a whole than as a sequence.4 The quote from Kieslowski with which this section begins does appear to very clearly suggest what his intentions where for the thematic structure of the trilogy. However, his statement was made before the release of the films and was perhaps made in support of the marketing strategy for the trilogy. Two years later he said something very different. When asked 'whether the Tricolour of his trilogy was a flag of convenience and whether or not it really was a story about love in Europe in the 1990s', he replied, "Of course it is. The words (liberty, equality, fraternity) are French because the money is French. If the money had been of a different nationality we would have titled the films differently, or it would have had a different cultural connotation. But the films would probably have been much the same"5 What then really unites the three parts of the Three Colours Trilogy? As Patrick Abrahamson suggested, love in Europe in the nineties is a likely candidate. The thematic structure of the trilogy that is built around the theme of love is as neat and tidy as the one that it replaces. Blue is primarily concerned with familial love, White with love in a sexual context and Red with platonic love. By the end of each film each character is forced to surrender to love after struggling to achieve unattainable targets. In Blue, Julie abandons her quest for independence and accepts her love for Olivier and his love for her. At the end of White, Karol and Dominique realise that their struggle for supremacy has masked but not extinguished their love for each other. In Red, the judge realises that he, like Julie, must accept the love of friendship. Valentine still has to learn her lesson as she does try to reach the jealous boyfriend that apparently doesn't love her. Thankfully fate steps in to bring her and her perfect match together. Her reaction to the old woman at the bottle bank reveals a lot about what is at the heart of the trilogy. Julie is too self obsessed and insulated from the world to notice the old woman struggling with the bottle. Karol seems pleased just to see somebody worse off than he is and doesn't help. Valentine, who compared to Karol and Julie hasn't a care in the world, still has the charitable instinct to help put the bottle in the container. It is this triumph of compassion and love over self interest that Kieslowski is applauding and is essentially what the Three Colours Trilogy is about. However, the final sequence of Blue is the real unifying climax of the trilogy rather than the self indulgent and crowd pleasing end of Red. The chorus of the concerto that Julie has eventually completed is the true moment of epiphany of the trilogy and the lyrics sum up what unites the three films. 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. 1Krzysztof Piesiewicz 2Kieslowski, Stok, p212 3Kieslowski, Stok, p218 4See 'The Trilogy Form' 5Kieslowski's Many Colours. Patrick Abrahamson, Oxford University Student Newspaper. June 2, 1995. Books Kieslowski, Krzysztof and Stok, Danusia ed. Kieslowski on Kieslowski. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1993. Kieslowski, Krzysztof and PIESIEWICZ, Krzysztof, Decalogue, The Ten Commandments, Translated by Phil Cavendish and Suzannah Bluh, London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1991. Articles Abrahamson, Patrick, 'Kieslowski's many colours', Oxford University Student Paper, June 2 (1995). Brown, Georgia, 'Too Beautiful For You', The Village Voice November 29, (1994) Brunette, Peter, 'A Film Maker Whose Range is Wagnerian', New York Times November 20 (1994) p.29. Kehr, Dave. 'To save the world', Film Comment 30: Nov/Dec pp.10-13 (1994). RAYANS, Tony, 'Glowing in The Dark' Sight and Sound, Volume 4 Issue 6, pp.8-10 (June1994). STRICK, Phillip, 'Trois Couleurs: Blanc' Sight and Sound, Volume 4 Issue 6, pp. 63-64 (June1994). KEMP, Philip, 'Trois Couleurs: Rouge' Sight and Sound, Volume 4 Issue 11, pp.54-55 (November 1994). BROWN, Geoff, 'King Crimson's Greatest Hits' The Guardian, November 10 1994. World Wide Web Sources The Official Krzysztof Kieslowski Home page: http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~zbigniew The Cardiff Internet Movie Database: http://www.csl.sony.co.jp:8900/Movies/ Aknowledgements Zbigniew Van Pasek Peter Jacobs: http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~peterjac/peterjac.html#SURF Glasgow University Student Television for DTP facilities. 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