To be honest, Three Colors : Blue was the most anticipated movie on my Blind Spot 2015 list. I always love Juliette Binoche. She has that rare quality; charismatic, smart, beautiful and calm but fearless. You can never understand why it took 8 months to the movie you wanted to see. Maybe it has to be this month to watch this movie, as I recently also at loss.
Not much words to say from Julie (Juliette Binoche) when she lost her husband and daughter from a car accident. In fact, after she recovered from the hospital, she immediately remove all their belongings and even want to sell their house. She move to a new apartment immediately. All along with no tears. She even throw away her husband’s last unfinished music sheets, which expected to be finished by their friend, Olivier, who are in love with Julie.
When no narration provided, we audience are left with our assumption through the visual and story. I assumed that she never really loved her husband that much, or she might be the one who cause the accident. Obviously, I watch too much murder story. But Julie’s reaction to her loss was triggered by the deep pain that made her cut out any loving relationship. Which is understandable after she has lost all the member of her own family in one incident.
We can see how independent and tough Julie is with all her actions, including never weeping a single time, even when she wants to spill her emotions to her mother, but couldn’t because her mother suffered Alzheimer. What makes us more sympathetic to Julie is after she found out her husband had an affair with another woman. Again, she seemed holding it inside. She didn’t looked angry or sad.
“Why are you crying?” “Because you’re not.”We deal with loss differently. Some people cry until their energy drained, some just feel empty and numb. Others want to runaway from the pain. With Julie, she seemed numb and angry in a subtle way.
The movie might looked quiet but all the battle is in Julie’s head. Some people just looked calm, but they really are not. She’s not an expressive person, but she definitely a person with heart. She refuses to sign petition to kick a woman in the building because others address her as a ‘whore’, then later the woman thanked her and be her best friend. What amazed me was Julie never judged her, but only asks her, ‘Why do you do this (working as an erotic dancer)?’ Their sudden friendship was beautiful.
Then, Julie’s openness to her husband’s mistress. When she met the girl and simply asks if her husband loved her, showed so much class and dignity. None of those pulling-hair or scratch-fight women usually do when they discover their spouse cheated. I can say that Julie was a character with a lot of maturity and high emotional intelligence, and remarkably a big heart. You can’t see that until you saw the whole movie.
I didn’t buy the romance between Julie and Olivier. All the quietness in the movie can bore you. But Juliette Binoche gave a solid performance. Krzysztof Kieślowski, the director said that the movie is about emotional liberty, which is a genius subject, to remind us that sometimes we ourselves that set our own barriers.
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