Three Colours: White | | Cast : | Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy | | Director : | Krzysztof Kieslowski | | Studio : | Buena Vista Home Vid | | Format : | Color | | Released Date : | February 18, 1994 | | DVD Released Date : | March 01, 2005 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 06, 2005 | | Summary | A Neat Comedy By a Master of Cinema | Content
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Probably the most over-looked in the Trois Couleurs Trilogy, principally because it is the one in middle and in a different tone to Bleu and Rouge, Trois Coleurs Blanc is a bleak comedy about inequality and troublesome relationships.
Karol Karol, played with sublime bemusement by Zbigniew Zamachowski, is having serious trouble with his soon-to-be ex-wife Dominique (an ice-maidenly Julie Delpy). She has had his bank account frozen, and left him with nothing. So Karol goes back to his homeland of Poland and begins to plot a fiendish revenge.
Three Colours White probably has more in common with Kiewslowski's TV series of morality plays, Dekalog [Worth your attention!] than it does with the other two films in the series. It is less stylised, being filmed in a straightforward, almost documentary style and it is - like a couple of those Dekalog shorts - a grim, dark comedy about ethics.
Kieslowski always maintained he was no great moralist. He didn't claim to have any answers to the way people lived their lives; he just found the subject interesting and liked to ask questions of himself and his audiences. This is, in part, what gives his films their deep humanity. White is bursting with humanism.
The decision to film it in the more straightforward style apparently came about because Kieslowski had to acknowledge the colour white was the most difficult to film, so the notion of building a symbolic colour-scheme around it (as he does with blue and red in the other two films) seemed too difficult. This is indicative of his technical ability as a director, which despite the less "showy" schemata of White still oozes out of the screen. This is a great director at the top of his game.
The comedy in Three Colours White [Trzy Kolory Bialy in Polish, by the way, the language the film is mostly in] mostly comes from its absurd plot-twists, which are heaped on top of each other until you can't help but laugh... But the emotions are very real, and very recognisable even while you're guffawing about the idea of a man going from France to Poland in the suitcase of someone he hardly knows.
While I think it would be fair to say this middle installment is not as impressive as Blue or Red it is still a very thoughtful, very clever piece of film-making most writers and directors would give their right-arm to have been involved with. And it takes a sideways look at its theme - white in the French flag represents "liberty" - that gives the discerning viewer pause for reflection.
Kieslowski does not spoon-feed his audiences, even in a rather straightforward narrative such as this, so the viewer is left to make up his or her own mind about certain things. Example: does Dominique love Karol after all?
It's excellent European cinema and its influence can be seen in many works that have followed since - surprisingly enough perhaps in the work of Lars Von Trier, who also goes in for uncomfortable laughs, occasional absurdism and slantwise looks at morality and ethics.
The extras on the disc are also worth having. It's fascinating to see Kiewslowski talk about his life and his work in such detail (He didn't leave anything in his movies to chance and is a deeply thoughtful man. Shame he didn't think about quitting the chain-smoking, he may have lasted longer!) and adds to your enjoyment of his work.
This is well worth taking a look at.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 31, 2005 | | Summary | A Polish Rapunzel | Content
| The first flash of white in this movie is the runny droppings falling from a pigeon onto the overcoat of Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowiski) as he enters a Parisian courthouse. The next time we distinctly see white, it is a porcelain toilet into which Karol is vomitting. With these two scenes occuring so early, you know that white, in this film, represents not purity, but pure cra-. However, if that is true of the color, it is definitely not true of the movie, which is pure gold.
White, in the three-colored French flag, represents equality, and "White" is Kieslowski's second film in the "Three Colors" trilogy -- "Blue" (for liberty) being the first, and "Red" (for fraternity) being the third. And it is our Polish protaginist Karol Karol (a redundancy, a duplicate, even in name) who brings up the issue of equality as "Julie" from "Blue" appears briefly in the rear of the court where Karol's French wife Dominique (Julie Delpy) is divorcing him for his inability to consummate their marriage -- on the wedding night or since.
Karol is a relatively short man with a boyishly charming face, which, alternately smiling and yearning, carries us through the movie. Dominique (in French, "dominer" means "dominate") is blonde, taller than Karol, and says she no longer loves him, although, in a strange conversation with him about "understanding," she says, "You don't understand that I want you, that I need you . . ." He implores her to come with him to Poland, but she refuses.
The rest of the movie may be "understood" as his attempt to get her to come . . . to Poland. I think this, rather than revenge, is his real motive. In the entire movie, the word "revenge" is used only once, and that is on the lips of Dominique in that conversation about "understanding," where we all understand that he is not interested in revenge. Instead, he tells a stranger that he still loves Dominique.
When Karol returns to Warsaw, Poland (Kieslowski's birthplace), his first view is of a city dump. "Home at last!" he says. When he later has to acquire two items on the black market, he learns that his home has become a place where "These days, you can buy anything." The blessings of capitalism! It is also a place where he continues to miss Dominique. One night, in his bedroom, he approaches a white, plaster bust of a woman as he listens to a casette tape conjugating French verbs, the last verb being "to please," and the last conjugation being "would that I had pleased."
What makes "White" such a delight to watch is not just the cleverly dark humor or the plot twists or the relational turmoil or the numerous interesting characters or even the lovely face of Julie Delpy. (Zbigniew Zamachowski's face is every bit as fascinating to watch.) It is all of these plus the number of sly details, both visual and verbal, that Kieslowski slips into his film that makes it rewarding to view -- and view again. The details make viewing this movie more than a casual stroll in the park. They make viewing it an outing for "naturalists" on the hunt for any significant sight or sound.
The movie, however, is not just fun and games, though those are present. Nor, I think, is it really about "getting even," though that would be a perverse kind of equality. It is, essentially, a love story. And that is why, at the end, when Karol cried, so did I.
PS Once again, if you see all of the flms in the "Colors" trilogy, you will note some recurring items. Each film features a courthouse, a street-side recycling bin, and a fictitious composer named Budenmayer. Why? This is Kieslowski-land. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 28, 2005 | | Summary | Second in the trilogy, and least impressive | Content
| The second in Kieslowski's 'Three Colours Trilogy', the camera seeking out white imagery, the director pursuing themes of equality, and a film with an altogether lighter touch than the first in the series, 'Blue'. This is, in some respects, a charming little black comedy; in others, it is a bleak commentary on life.
Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) is an award winning Polish hairdresser who has met and married a beautiful French model (Julie Delpy). They are so very much in love he cannot consummate their marriage and she determines to rob him of every other aspect of his material life and personal dignity. The film opens with Karol on his way to receive French justice - everyone is equal before the law, but Karol needs an interpreter to understand what is happening, has his life exposed to public scrutiny, and leaves homeless, with nothing but a large trunk containing little but his hairdressing certificates. He will soon find himself pursued by the law, with no passport and no money to return to Poland. Fortunately, he meets another Pole who helps him flee France and return to his homeland ... where he is immediately robbed of what little he has left. Karol sets out to rebuild his life, with scant regard for law or morals.
"White" is a charming, funny little film with bleak moments and an enigmatic ending. Equality, Kieslowski suggests, is an illusion. Power is what counts, power is what modern societies respect. Equality is an illusion. If you lose your status - even as a man before the woman you love - you are equal to nothing.
And, while in "Blue" and in "Red", the films are dominated by their leading actresses (particularly Juliette Binoche in "Blue"), here Julie Delpy is reduced to a minor role - central to the plot, but marginalised at the same time. The director of a film, it seems, can reduce a character in status in exactly the same way society can pay lip service to equality yet spit upon those who are less equal than others.
Kieslowski had worked with Zbigniew Zamachowski before, using him in some of his earlier Polish films. The pair have an evident rapport. Kieslowski uses the bleakness of winter landscapes and cityscapes to emphasise the hairdresser's plight. Delpy remains a cold, distant figure who attracts the audience's disapproval (possibly even hatred) as her spurned husband sets about turning the tables. She will end up receiving equal treatment at the hands of the Polish authorities as she endures the humiliating equality of pay-back. Yet the film ends on an optimistic note - enigmatically so - an optimism which will be consummated in "Red".
"White" is perhaps the weakest of the three films in the trilogy. Despite its bleak content, it offers some light relief between the intensity of the other two films. The camerawork is stylistically very different, the use of music is less pronounced, the characters less thoroughly drawn, the editing creates a more staccato narrative. The overall effect is to detach the viewer from engagement with the characters. Your sympathies for Karol and his cold, cold wife undergo some transition in the course of the film - perhaps they do end up as equals at the end.
An enjoyable film, the DVD offers some excellent extras in the form of a masterclass with Kieslowski on aspects of the film, and an interview with Julie Delpy, amongst others.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 23, 2005 | | Summary | Amusing, Clever, A Bit Sad | Content
| I much prefer irony to tragedy, and after Blue I was not sure what to look forward to with White. I wound up liking White a lot. Movies about "the human condition" are, for me, almost invariably obvious. While this movie does quite a bit of exploring about how a man reacts to love and the withdrawing of love, impotence and the power of performance, revenge and a circling back to love, I thought it was handled with such off-hand, dead-pan humor as to be a very sweet film. In a way, it struck me as an amuse-bouche, one of those unexpected treats that a first-rate chef will surprise a good customer with at the start of a meal or sometimes in between courses. The movie has that quality of freshness and unexpectedness.
Zbigniew Zamachowski does a masterful job as Karol, a sad sack if there ever was one, who gradually shows determination as well as obsession. I suppose one must just accept obsession as an unexplainable plot device in a movie, but Dominique got off to a very unsympathetic start. She'd wilt most men. Karol's obsession with her seemed a bit unreal. I found Karol developing into a resourceful, intelligent guy whom I began to admire. Dominique, though, didn't seem to change much. After all she put Karol through -- unnecessarily cruel most of the time -- I couldn't empathize much with Karol, but simply accepted things as the reason why I was enjoying the movie. I couldn't help thinking that if Karol had just had a few Viagra handy, none of his troubles would have begun. But then I thought about Dominique's essential characteristics, and I think that Karol would be better off with somebody new. I don't see a future for them.
One of the things I liked a lot about this movie is that it kept me guessing. Was it going to be a romantic comedy, or a black comedy or some kind of excruciatingly dull exploration of sexual inadequacy? Was Karol really just a sad loser when he seemed sort of resourceful in a sad, funny way? What was he trying to do with his property purchase? Where did Dominque fit in or was this just a cameo with Delpy? Was something sad going to happen after I'd figured out it seemed to be a combination black/romantic comedy? I like a movie that I can't quite see the end to.
People have said that this movie is the equality part of the trio. I saw this movie as a clever, bittersweet struggle for dominance, not equality, and laced with a little revenge. I thought it was a sweet, bittersweet, clever movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 08, 2005 | | Summary | Equality in terms of knowledge in one's own country | Content
| Equality-the state or instance of being equal; especially, the state of enjoying equal rights, as political, economic, and social.
"What about equality?" demands Polish émigré and hairdresser Karol Karol to the judge during his divorce hearings. Was the judge not hearing his case just because he couldn't speak French? Karol's French wife, the lovely Dominique, has filed divorce charges against him because he can't perform in bed. This leaves Karol in a pinch, as Dominique has tossed him and his suitcase out into the street, having been awarded the house and bank account. Furthermore, it does fit the theme of equality in the second of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Tricoleurs trilogy, Blanc (French), or Bialy (Polish). Dominique has the advantage of knowing French and French law. Karol doesn't. The only thing is for him to return back to Poland, which he does, in a suitcase!
Fortunately, he has his brother Jurek, running his hairdressing salon, and Mikolaj (pron. Mikolai), a fellow Pole who has promised him a job, to kill someone who wants to take his own life but can't, for which he'll pay handsomely. Yet Karol tells his target that we all want less pain in our lives and the technique he uses to dissuade his target is ingenious. I mean, can one see Karol, who's a nice, maybe too nice a guy, as a killer?
The colour symbolism of white works here as did blue for the first film in the trilogy. Karol and Mikolaj run around in the snow as if they were kids. From that point on, the white symbolizes a clean slate, where Karol's comeback begins. Much of the scenery in Poland is against an overcast gray-white sky, but that provides the backdrop for his rejuvenation. He's back home, where he becomes knowledgeable about the new post-Communist Poland and other things he learns to make it as a businessman. And it is there that he decides to get back at his ex-wife. Personally, I thought he was too lenient with her.
Zbigniew Zamachowski shines as Karol, as does Janusz Gajos as the gloomy Mikolaj. Julie Delpy is pretty but unsympathetic as Dominique, which was the point of the movie. The vicious way she humiliates Karol that drives him back to Poland, most men would consider unforgivable. Yet she's like a bookend, figuring in the beginning and final parts of White. Oh, and Juliette Binoche, star of Blue, has a brief wordless cameo in the beginning, where she can be seen at the rear of the court chambers talking to the guards while Karol's hearing is in progress.
To the extent that being at home in one's country and knowing the laws and people there makes people equal to one another, but only within the confines of their borders, which is a stark contrast to Blue, where one of the subplots involved a concerto for European unification.
A good film to be sure, with a protagonist to root for, but Libertie, Revanche, Fraternite?
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