Amazon.com video review:
The first installment of the late Polish director Krzysztof
Kieslowski's trilogy on Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, the three
colors of the French flag. Blue is the most somber of the three, a
movie dominated by feelings of grief. As the film begins, a car
accident claims the life of a well-known composer. His wife, played
by Juliette Binoche (Oscar winner for The English
Patient), does not so much put the pieces of her life back
together as start an entirely new existence. She moves to Paris, where
she dissolves into a wordless life virtually without other
people. Kieslowski attaches an almost subconscious significance to the
color blue, but primarily he focuses on Binoche's luminous face, and
the way her subtle shifts in emotion flicker and disappear. The
picture may be more enigmatic than the follow-ups White and Red, but Binoche's
quiet, heartbreaking presence becomes spellbinding; her performance
won the best actress prize at the Venice Film Festival in
1993. --Robert Horton
