Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three
Colours Trilogy was created to show his ideals or visions of what colours on
the French flag are representing; Blue being freedom, White representing
equality and Red representing fraternity.
Three Colours: Blue opens with a
static shot of the camera placed behind a tyre of car being driven on the
motorway. The lighting has ambient soft fill showing the audience that it is
early dawn and probably at winter from the mist and the cold blue lighting that
lays over everything. It then cuts to the daughter Anna looking through the
rear window of the car then cuts to her point of view at the traffic and tunnel
lights which are purposefully distorted and out of focus into streaks of colour
from the camera.
It then cuts to a static shot from
beneath the car again this time the camera focusing on thick fluid substance
dripping from the brake cables of the car, there is an out of focus image of
the daughter Anna in the background running back into the car after making a
toilet stop. This imagery along with the cold blue lighting create the emotion
of an overhanging emotion of melancholy from which cinematographer Slawomir
Idziak gives hint that something tragic may happen to this family in the car,
which is then revealed when it cuts to a static long shot of the car crashing
into a tree.
After
the crash it cuts to a first person shot of the protagonist Julie's (Juliette
Binoche) point of view, which is a long take of an extreme close up of her
breathing onto a white feather with the sides of the frame is distorted and out
of focus. The colour of the white feather could be used to represent life and
freedom as Julie has survived and awoken from the crash. The surrounding fill
key light is no longer a cold blue but also a dim white glowing in the
background. A doctor in the background then emerges on screen from the right
out of focus and then places his hand close to her eyesight, only the close
finger tips in focus. It cuts to an extreme close up of Julie’s eye as you can
see the doctor in the eye’s reflection as he informs her of the death of her
daughter and husband. The cinematography for this scene I believe successfully
portrays to the audience Julie’s emotions of disorientation and confusion.
Director of Photography Slawomir Idziak achieves this with the use of extreme
close ups and out of focus edges around the frame.
When the
Julie hears the tragic news of the death of her family it cuts to a close up of
Julie’s face, in the background there is a blue almost green tint that could
represent her sadness and frustration at the tragic news. The colours are also
rippling around Julie that I believe could be placed to also represent her
disorientation and anger.
From
this I researched what Kieslowski and Idziak’s meaning and message they were portraying
for the colour of blue for this picture and how it represented freedom.
“It is clear that Kieslowski has made blue
to be about personal freedom rather than political notions of freedom. It is
about Julie’s struggle to find freedom in the realm of emotions as she
struggles to achieve a sense of stability and independence after the death of
her husband and daughter…Throughout the film the colour blue is not used as a
symbol of “freedom”, but to create moods of melancholy and coldness, and to
draw attention to the resonant emotional associations conjured up by objects
and places in Julie’s mind”. Andrews. (1998). Pg 25.
The
shot of Anna’s view of streaks of colour and blurred out of focus shots of
passing vehicles during the opening sequence give hint that Kieslowski’s use of
extreme close up’s and blurred use of focus represent his protagonist’s mental
state. I also understood the use or lack of dialogue Kieslowski has used, instead he captures raw emotion portrayed by the actor, he creates a powerful effect to tell the narrative and the protagonist's emotions. Something Andrew's I found agree's on:-
"Kieslowski focuses so closely and precisely on julie within the frame that the audience is constantly aware, without her needing to verbalise her feelings, of her intensely private responses to the world around her". Andrews. (1998). pg 27.
Most definitely going to experiment and try to capture this same effect to see if I can make it successful for my film.
In her shattered emotional state Julie attempts for a suicidal overdose but cannot swallow the pills as her will to survive is so strong. When Julie watches her husband and daughter’s funeral service on a miniature television we the audience discover that her husband was a famous and well respected music composer.
It then cuts to Julie sleeping on a hospital ground floor balcony. Julie is awoken suddenly by unexplained music and a blue lighting which shines on her and dominates the screen. The camera also moves away on a track and then returns to a close up of Julie, who in a startled state follows the movement of the camera. As the music and the blue lighting fades out Julie is then visited by a journalist who enquires whether it is true that Julie was really the writer of her deceased husband’s music. The ‘supernatural’ visit of the music and the blue lighting over Julie suggests that she may well have written the music for her husband, and that she cannot control her creativeness just as much as her melancholy emotional state.
Julie being visited by brief musical fragments accompanied visually by the extreme blue lighting could be seen as the obstacles to her quest for personal freedom and how she cannot escape her emotions of sadness, grief and depression. During this scene as well the glass balcony screen is the colour blue, which could also symbolise Julie’s melancholy constantly shadowing over her.
Kieslowski’s Three Colours of Red, White and Blue has for many years been one of my favourite trilogies. I highly admire the way he uses extreme close ups to portray/capture emotion to tell the narrative rather than the use of dialogue. I also admire the use of dramatic flashes/attacks of colour to also portray emotion of the characters and the mood of the atmosphere. I hope to use these techniques in my film and use them successfully.
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