Here's what I noted down on 5 sheets of paper when I was watching Three Colours: Blue. (Euro Studies film for Week 3). It's a film by Krzysztof Kieslowski (a Polish director) in 1993. It's basically about the individual, freedom and civil society in 1992 France, 3 years after the Fall of the Wall and 200 years after the French Revolution and the "Rights of Equality of the Man". Synopsis: Julie loses her husband (Patrice), a famous composer who's was composing the Concerto for the Unification of Europe when he died in the car accident, together with Anna. Julie then tries to erase her past by getting rid of everything... but as you can see, the past catches up with her. Note the use of the colour blue and the parts where the Concerto is played at particular scenes and their significance. I kind of like this film cos' I can see myself in it... starting life anew. =)
· Blue paper flies out of window.
· Car accident. What is the significance of the game that Antoine was playing?
· Patrice and Anna died in the car accident, Julie survives.
· Julie could not swallow the pills down; failed attempt at committing suicide.
· Julie touched the photo / grave of Anna only during the recording of the funeral.
· Julie rests in the house – Concerto plays – she wakes up to stark reality.
· The female journalist says “hello” through the blue glass windows.
· Journalist - “How advanced is the Concerto?” Julie’s response – “It doesn’t exist”.
· Julie asked Bernard to clear everything from the blue room. Emergence of blue lamp here.
· Marie was crying in the kitchen. Julie asks why. Marie replies, “Because you (Julie) are not crying. I can’t forget them”.
· Olivier takes away blue file. Contents of the blue file include photos of Patrice and Sandrine (his mistress).
· Julie tries playing the Concerto on the piano. Gradual fading of the scores (= erasing of memories). Piano slams on her – blue reflection appears.
· Julie throws the Concerto into the garbage truck. Music disappears.
· Julie eats a blue lollipop – bits at it angrily and throws the lollipop stick into the fire.
· Julie calls up Olivier and asks, “Do you love me?”
· Julie strips when Olivier arrives – Concerto plays again and blue reflection appears.
· Next morning, the music stops.
· Julie tries to desensitize Olivier. “You won’t miss me because I’m just like any other woman”.
· Julie scratches her hands against the wall.
· Julie moves to Paris.
· Julie wants no children in the building.
· Housing agent: “What do you do?” Julie replies, “Nothing at all”.
· Changes her name from Julie de Courcy to Julie Vignon (her maiden name) – Attempts to erase her past life.
· Julie takes out the blue lamp – concerto plays again.
· Emergence of flute player on the roadside playing the concerto. Coffee cup scene with the black shadow. The shadow reflects her past and she cannot escape from the Concerto no matter where she is.
· Julie jumps into the swimming pool and swims the breath, not length. (WHY???)
· Man being beaten up – blue reflection on Julie’s face when man knocks frantically on her door. Julie refuses to have anything to do with the man and hence, she does not help. Freedom VS Social Responsibility.
· Lucille arrives home and leaves door open for client. She is a prostitute using her flat for such purposes.
· Blue “squares” appear on Julie’s face when she sees the man entering Lucille’s flat.
· Neighbours petition against the presence of Lucille and attempt to evict her (for being a whore, loose woman).
· Julie refuses to sign the petition. “Not interested”.
· Julie was relaxing at the café when she saw a frail old woman struggling to recycle her glass bottle. She did not bother to help.
· Julie visits the doctor, Antoine calls up.
· Antoine: “It is important that I meet you”. Julie: “Nothing is important”.
· At the meeting between Julie and Antoine, Julie forgot about the cross when Antoine gives it back to her.
- Antoine: “I just saw the car after it…”.
- Julie: “No”.
- Black-out appears. Concerto plays.
- Julie: “I’m sorry”.
· Julie was laughing when Antoine told her about Patrice’s last words.
· Swimming scene again. Julie swims the breadth.
· Julie tried to get out but sinks back in when she hears the Concerto. The Concerto then becomes muffled. (Idea of swimming pool as sth BLUE, absolute freedom, sterile environment. When she tries to get out, the Concerto plays again (her memories come back)... When she gets back in, the sound is muffled.
· Julie approaches the flute player. Flute player: “One must always keep something”.
· Julie and Lucille became friends.
· Lucille: “You are not the type to be abandoned or betrayed”.
· Lucille (on the blue lamp): “When I was young, I tried to touch it but couldn’t reach it. I forgot about it when I grew up”. (Notion of freedom)
· Lucille noted that the flute player left his flute behind.
· Spoon floating in a vase. (WHY???)
· Olivier manages to track Julie down in a café.
· Black car appears and flute player gets out. He is embraced by a woman in the car.
· Julie to Olivier: “Do you hear what he is playing?” (The flute player is playing the Concerto)
· Sugar rapidly becomes black when the coffee touches it. The sugar then falls into the coffee. (WHY???)
· Discovery of mice having babies. Babies = Children??
· Julie tried to change her flat.
· Agent tells her that his cat scratched him when Julie asks about whether the scar on his cheek was caused by his shaving.
· Julie visits her Mum in the nursing home.
· Mum mistakes her for Marie-France (Mum’s sister).
· On the TV screen appears an old man bungee-jumping. Significance??? Bungee-jumping as something that is liberating BUT is still tied to a rope, freedom not absolute.
· Julie: “(I will have) no love, no possessions”.
· Julie asks her Mum if she was afraid of mice when she was young. Mum says: “Not you, but Julie”.
· Olivier received manuscript from the postman. Plays the Concerto on the piano. The rat starts to appear and is seen trying to hide her young mice. (Hiding Concerto = Hiding / Protecting mice)
· Julie goes to agent’s house to ask if he could lend her his cat. Reason? Julie wanted to destroy the mice. (Link to above point)
· Julie swims again (breadth) and this time, Lucille approaches her at the pool.
- Julie: “What are you doing here?”
- Lucille: “You looked upset – I saw you run in here”.
- Lucille: “Are you crying?”
- Black-out appears. Concerto plays.
- Julie: “No it’s water”.
- Lucille: “I understand, you’re too scared to go back in (the house)”.
· Children with white swimsuits and red floats start to jump into the pool. (White = Equality, Red = Fraternity notion?)
· Lucille calls Julie to come over to meet her.
· Julie finds herself at a striptease parlour.
- Lucille: “I saw my father. He was tired – nodding off. I asked the bouncer to get him off – but to no avail. He is a customer after all, you see”.
- Julie: “Where is he?”
- Lucille: “10 minutes ago, he left. I remember the last train to Montpellier leaves at 1145pm”.
- Julie: “Why are you doing this?”
- Lucille: “Because I like it”.
· Julie sees herself on TV in the striptease parlour. A journalist was interviewing Olivier and Julie found out that Olivier is continuing Patrice’s work (the woman photocopied the Concerto because she knew Julie would destroy it). Patrice’s photos are revealed and here, we see the emergence of Sandrine (his mistress).
· Julie approached the manuscript woman.
- Manuscript woman: “It is such beautiful music. You can’t destroy it”.
· Julie approached Olivier.
- Julie: “You have no right to finish the Concerto”.
- Olivier: “I have to. So I can make you care, to cry, to run”.
· Julie asks Olivier about Sandrine.
- Olivier: “Sandrine had been Patrice’s girlfriend for several years. She’s a clerk with a legal practice”.
- Olivier: “What are you going to do?”
- Black-out appears. Concerto plays.
- Julie: “Meet her”.
· Julie goes to the courts, tried to enter the hearing where she saw Sandrine but was sent out by the police officer.
- Defendant: “Because I don’t speak French, you won’t hear my case?” (Notion of equality, the lack of).
· Julie meets Sandrine in the toilet.
- Julie: “Is that his baby?”
- Sandrine: “Yes”.
- Sandrine asks for a cigarette from Julie. Julie obliges, but said:
- Julie: “You shouldn’t”.
- Julie: “Did Patrice love you?”
- Sandrine: “Yes Patrice loved me”.
· Julie went to swim again. But this time, she swam the breath and switched her direction to swim the length. Change of Julie’s attitudes towards life?
· Julie went to visit her mum again and saw her watching a guy on TV walking on a tight-rope. (WHY???) However, the concerto music played again and Julie walks away from her mum w/o visiting her.
· Julie visited Olivier.
- Julie: “If I had taken it (the blue file), I’d have known (about Sandrine)”.
- Julie: “If I had burnt it, I’d never have known”.
- Olivier: “No”.
- Julie: “Maybe it’s for the best”.
· Julie started to work on the Concerto again. Use of alto, violin and the FLUTE.
· Julie instructs Olivier not to sell her former house (chateau) because she intended to give it to Sandrine to stay.
· Julie tells Sandrine: “His name and house should belong to him (the unborn son)”.
· Julie called Olivier to come to take the manuscript. Olivier refused because “the music should be yours, everyone should know it”.
· Julie goes over to Olivier’s house with the manuscript. Emergence of the blue lamp and the Concerto plays again.
· The end – Concerto plays as a finale, together with extract from Corinthians. “Though I speak with the forces of angels, and here not love, I am just sounding brass”.
· “No love = nothing”.
· “Love never fails, prophecies fail, Knowledge shall vanish” (and Julie’s demented mum appears).
· “Faith, Hope, Love”. (Baby appears in the pregnancy scanning).
· “But the greatest of these is love”
· The reflection in Julie’s eyes appear once again.