"Three Colours: White" (Language - Polish/French) (1994) - Movie Review

Blanc is the French translation of the colour white and it stands the title. It is a poignant and melodic sans extraordinary film. The characters are sinister and Dominique carried by Julie Delpy is up for serving cruelty in multi course meals to the protagonist Karol played by naïve and hopelessly caught in love Zbigniew Zamachowski. The intensity of Dominique in hurting Karol increases proportionally with the attempt of contacts he tries to make. She ignites a fire in a property attained by divorcing Karol and says she will tell cop that he did it, she freezes his account and leaves him in streets and finally to top it off when he calls to check on her at night she moans and screams in her lovemaking with another man to him. And still Karol could not able to get over her.

Karol could not make love to her is the reason she gives for breaking up the marriage and it indeed is. She makes it miserable break away. Either Karol has pestered her to nuts or she is a little devil with an expertise skill level in moral and emotional torture. Karol a Pole meets another countryman, Mikolaj (Janusz Gajos) at the train station. Mikolaj has that comforting big brother scent as that of Philip Baker Hall in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Hard Eight”. These are the men who can immediately identify a failed and defeated man, comfort him with a drink and offer a help and are genuine in the succinct sentences uttered to accept it without doubt or concern. With some dangerous risks, Karol comes back to Warsaw and begins working with his friend Jurek (Jery Stuhr). He has been a great hair dresser and he does that. He still loves and aspires to attain Dominique. What now is the question?

Director Krzysztof Kieślowski’s second in the three colours trilogy is unlike “Blue”. We can say both films have an approach of similar nature by a creator particular about camera angle, music and mystical suspense of how a scene might end. The direction is directionless in the character’s next step of action. He does not let Karol speak up what he is about to execute and the film smirks when Mikolaj performs what Karol asks to without any question. It is a cruel test of teasing when Karol is about to tell him but Mikolaj walks away. The scene gets its nature of concealment and while it runs condescending on the viewer, it is not insulting because Mikolaj’s character’s honesty and integrity is maintained.

How man is hopelessly attracted and becomes an emotional slave for the opposite sex? The more they are rejected, the more they are attracted. With insolent actions and humiliation, they polarize it as a test of their love. But the naked truth is the pleasure in self pity, a drug which once identified can be got rid of and that happens at a pace of the person’s discovery of denial. Karol is a nice and amicable person as we see him sleeping on the street, suffering under the hands of Dominique, getting robbed and kicked. But he is not stupid and he is a clever businessman. He begins to venture tactics of money making in a risky with perfect plan. But we do not question his state of mind for the love he has for his woman mainly due to the association we make with his pain and while simultaneously want him get over her, feel sorry for him too. He keeps it to himself and make sure it does not interfere in his day to day life which is the reason we like him. He is a friend not grouching about the unfairness but building up a life for him and may be some thing more. As the money making process attains fruition, the coming events would give closure but the end is more tragic and has a deep sense of wicked innocence. The two characters come to terms over a plain of discomfort and pity. But we are convinced by it.

The film’s nature of its lightness and basically plot driven loses some of the serene emotions “Blue” carried on. Still it operates in its circle of genre and execution. It has uncorrelated scenes which come to make sense later which are rightly to be put as such but it is more about the chemistry of these two men, Karol and Mikolaj. I liked that better than the passion which drives Karol and Dominique. Karol and Mikolaj should have been the interests. It is said that “White” is the conceptual representation of equality and in this case of both sexes. While most of the time a film of such value would go for the take of an injustice act upon woman, this takes the other way round. This is a film with multiple emotional pay offs to take upon. It is in its content of depiction attains its destination. The journey while appears bland has significance of how characters has the capability to be vicious and able to make peace with them to survive upon. It is not disturbing not because of how much one would go to hurt another rather we come out guiltless and the acknowledgement of the dark companion in us scares a little.