Three Colors: Blue

Trois Couleurs: Bleu

Summary

Julia is a woman who just lost her family in a car accident. She is the wife of a famous French composer who was commissioned to write a piece of music for the unification of Europe after the cold war. Suddenly she wants to escape her old life and runs of to Paris taking nothing with and trying to start a new life. Her family friend Oliver, who is really in love with Julie, wants her to finish her late husbands work that really appears to be Julies work. She refuses but Oliver continues and tries to finish the work himself. While this is happening Julie finds out her husband had a mistress, and that she is also pregnant. Julie actually goes and tries to help her, including letting her live in the home, she use to live with her husband and daughter before their accident. The film ends with Julie finishing the music and her finally mourning for her lost family something she had not done the whole film.

Theme

Freedom is one of the major themes in the film; Julie as we come to find out becomes depressed after her accident and lost of her family. She decides to leave her old life behind, she moves out of her home, sleeps with another man, and finally doesn’t finish the music, which she was writing for her husband. But she can’t run away forever and her life catches up with her the music haunts her every time she has time to think. Also Oliver the man she slept with tracks her down in Paris, and also encourages her to finish her husbands’ late work. Another strong example is earlier in the film, while in the hospital she wants to kill herself with an overdose, thus being set free of her current situation

  Reaction

 This film was very difficult to watch for the causal movie fan, but is one that should be seen by those who study film. It the first part of a work of art, the film shows the lost and re-awaking of a woman who was tied down by a family. To enjoy this film on e really has to see all three movies. A lot of the story is told throw the music that follows Julie when she closes her eyes, yet the viewer always has a sense of what she is going through. I can’t say that I enjoyed this film, the first time I saw it, because it really doesn’t follow the pattern most Hollywood movies do. Upon watching it two to three times, then the other two films that follow it, you truly understand what the director was going for. One really has to be open minded to enjoy these films otherwise they are horribly boring.