Review of movies BLEU BLANC ROUGE (Blue White Red) *CLONING*
Archimedes Plutonium
Wed., Jan 10 Triple Feature
BLUE 6 PM D: Krzysztof Kieslowski, France/Poland, in French with
English subtitles, 1993, 100 minutes.
WHITE 7:45 PM D: Krzysztof Kieslowski, France/Poland, in French with
English subtitles, 1994, 91 minutes.
RED 9:25 PM D: Krzysztof Kieslowski, France/Poland, in French with
English subtitles, 1994, 99 minutes.
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity - Blue, White, and Red. Kieslowski's
films explore what these terms mean on an individual level and are as
beautiful, as profound and as deeply moving as you could hope for.
--- end DFS quoting ---
This winter terms theme is Auteur. Let me quote from the DFS.
--- start quote of Dartmouth Film Society ---
Filmmaking, by its nature, is a collaborative attempt. The producer,
actors, cinematographer, art director, etc., all influence the final
product. But some directors have a consistent thematic and stylistic
vision that matures throughout their careers, one which stamps itself
on every film they make, marking them as the author - auteur - of the
film. Whether they work within a genre, as did Ford and Hitchcock, or
with a studio the way Lang and Nicholas Ray did, or with their own
team, which as Bergman and Bunuel's method, their personal aesthetics
add to the stories at hand, bringing to each a unique perspective that
enriches it. It is this difference that makes their works stand out
from hundreds of other great films.
--- end quote of DFS ---
I do not like the theme of Auteur and have replaced it with my own
theme of Cloning and so will analyze these movies as per Cloning.
Well, I thought maybe my eyes would tire in a movie triplet but they
held out well. And I had showered before attending so was feeling
refreshed for 3 movies in a row. I generally sit in the first row
middle seat and I like the huge screen. I really appreciate what DFS
has going for they do not allow eating drinking and of course smoking.
So the DFS movies are distraction free and it is a joy to watch movies
over there. The price is grand for $10 I have the privilege of watching
28 movies. This triple feature was worth the 10 bucks alone in my
esteem.
--- quotes in part from paper handout ---
.....The thread that links them all? Cigarettes? Well, yes, but the
relevant issue here is Europe. And the relevant issue for these notes
is that Les Trois Coleurs may just represent the last work by the
final, and, in some ways, the greatest European auteur.
In BLUE, WHITE, and RED, Krzysztof Kieslowski employs all his
favorite motifs-- the doubting lawyer, the sexual dysfunctional, the
injured animal, the beautiful woman . . . .
. . . BLUE shows a liberty that is unachievable, probably isn't even
desirable, and may not even have any meaning in the first place. In
WHITE, the only way for a spurned lover to achieve equality is through
deceit, greed, and domination. What equality the protagonist Karol does
achieve is, of course, ephemeral, indicating the pointlessness of the
struggle in the first place. As for RED, what fraternity is
maintained-- and even celebrated--is shadowed throughout the film by
the shallowness of many of the human connections depicted, be it
because of technological constraints, emotional restraints, moral
restraints, or, in the case of the judge, born 40 years too late--fate.
The dominant thread through all of Kieslowski's work is his bitter
irony, . . . .
. . . . . Kieslowski is thinking on screen, showing a respect for his
audience that is rare in today's cinema.
--- end of quoting in part from paper handout ---
You can say that again that most films have little respect for the
intelligence of their audience. That is perhaps the main reason that
this trilogy movie was good. The audience is roused into thinking
And the comment of cigarettes, when I travelled through Europe 1988,
far too much cigarette smoking.
After seeing BLUE, I thought the music score was too beautiful for the
plot and it reminded me of CHARIOTS OF FIRE where the music was too
good for the story. But in BLUE I liked the story of a United Europe
theme. One can dream up many stories around a theme of United Europe.
In BLUE the story was about a composer writing the music for the United
Europe who gets accidently killed in a auto crash. BTW, I do not think
BMW appreciates that ad and in my mind I bet it must have been some
deliberations to use BMW and why not have the accident just on speeding
rather than a mechanical fault? Was the Kieslowski hinting something
about a United Europe in that accident?
I really liked the music in BLUE and in RED. And I liked BLUE and RED
more than WHITE.
I thought the theme of RED should have been "justice" and not
"fraternity". And I thought WHITE story should have been about races in
order to capture the meaning of "equality" strongly on the individual
level. To try to capture equality in sex seems less appropriate of a
vehicle. I mean, to capture equality the story WHITE should have been
about say 4 people of different races, whereas to construct a theme of
equality around sex or love is a nebular thing and why bother?
This trilogy was a work of art and it is refreshing to see a foreign
film which one can see was made as a work of art and that so many USA
movies are cut from a budget where it does not leave room for character
development. Europe goes for character development and the USA goes for
action. Who cares about another auto chase which takes up 15 minutes of
footage.
The story of RED was good and perhaps the most original of the three.
Original is perhaps not my best choice of words. Let me say
Kieslowski's most creative of the trilogy. After seeing RED, it
reminded me of another movie plot I had seen and I forget the title,
perhaps it was a TWILIGHT ZONE MOVIE. And perhaps Kieslowski had seen
this movie for it was one movie among 3 or 4, ie another trilogy.
Briefly, let my describe it. Man 1 is looking for this person 2 for his
? insurance policy, or for some reason? 1 finds 2 in a basement of 2's
house where there is a lot of clocks and gadgets all connected and 2
tells 1 that oops if the machinery stops here or a spring is out of
place then a earthquake will hit Japan at such and such a time. 1
leaves and reads in the newspaper that an earthquake hit Japan
precisely as 2 had said. So 1 goes back to find 2 and 2 says he is in
dire straits because his clockwork machinery gadgets are not working
well and that a flood or major catastrophe will hit such and such. And
sure enough it happens. Then 2 gives up the caretaking to 1.
I liked that feature in the TWILIGHT ZONE MOVIE for it sort of
reminds me of superdeterminism in the way that the proton gods in the
nucleus of 231PU are diligently working on their nuclear machinery and
what they do there in the nucleus is cause both good and bad things to
happen on us in our electron world connected to the nucleus. And in
RED, one can sort of replace the Judge and his eavesdropping telephone
gear with 2 in his basement machinery holding the world from
catastrophes. Come to think of it, RED is a remake of this story of
TWILIGHT ZONE MOVIE. The music in RED was very nice especially at the
end. I like all movies that hint of superdeterminism and the best two
are CLASH OF THE TITANS and JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.
Now, to analyze BLUE, WHITE and RED to my theme of Cloning. What came
to my mind most of the time while watching this trilogy is feelings,
feelings, feelings and how usually dumb feelings are compared to
someone who suppresses feelings and allows reasoning and logic rule
their life. I am how stupid feeling would allow a work of art of the
United Europe Symphony be thrown away and destroyed. How stupid of
feelings to continue to love someone who on the very night you leave is
in bed with a stranger. How stupid of feelings for a young beautiful
woman to put up with some boyfriend jerk on the telephone who is
suspicious of her. In a world of Cloning in full force, people with
these stupid feelings who let their lives be dominanted and motivated
and absorbed in most of their time, will be cloned out. That is to say,
with Cloning superior people will spend most of their time with
rational reasonable and logical thoughts and actions. Their time will
be spent mostly on their work, their livelihood and not some dumb
idiotic things like living alone and doing nothing but go swimming or
revolve one life around a lover or love or sex. With cloning, humanity
is free from feelings and love and sex. With Cloning humanity frees
itself because another identical you can be born and raised to live it
all over again. Humanity can devote its time to what is really
important--- work that you love to do.
So to summarize, I pitied these characters displayed in this trilogy
because their feeling got caught up into a "empty irrational
unproductive feeling mill and they were grinded pulverized or wasted
alot of their lifetime." Cloning in the advanced stages will remove
the stupid and idiotic feelings out of humanity and leave characters
such as Dr. Spock in STAR TREK or characters such as the best workers
where you work, always on time, never sick, always friendly at work and
work hard and are more happy with their work and will do it really for
no pay. So, this trilogy shows well the bad side of "feelings" as
compared to reason and logic.
Jon P LeVitre
>--- start quote of Dartmouth Film Society ---
<BIG snip>
> So to summarize, I pitied these characters displayed in this trilogy
>because their feeling got caught up into a "empty irrational
>unproductive feeling mill and they were grinded pulverized or wasted
>alot of their lifetime." Cloning in the advanced stages will remove
>the stupid and idiotic feelings out of humanity and leave characters
>such as Dr. Spock in STAR TREK or characters such as the best workers
>where you work, always on time, never sick, always friendly at work and
>work hard and are more happy with their work and will do it really for
>no pay. So, this trilogy shows well the bad side of "feelings" as
>compared to reason and logic.
Actually, Archie, DOCTOR Spock was a popular child psychologist
a few decades back (and if I remember right, he thought that
feelings were pretty important).
The STAR TREK character was MISTER Spock.
Oh well, it's not your first mistake, and it probably won't be
your last...
jonl
Phillip A. Erwin
: >because their feeling got caught up into a "empty irrational
: >unproductive feeling mill and they were grinded pulverized or wasted
: >alot of their lifetime." Cloning in the advanced stages will remove
: >the stupid and idiotic feelings out of humanity and leave characters
: >such as Dr. Spock in STAR TREK or characters such as the best workers
: >where you work, always on time, never sick, always friendly at work and
: >work hard and are more happy with their work and will do it really for
: >no pay. So, this trilogy shows well the bad side of "feelings" as
: >compared to reason and logic.
These would not be advanced humans but instead robots. I suppose that the
elite class _would_ have emotions and would live from the labor of these
emotionless therefore thoughtless robots....very 1984esque, no?
phillip
--
__
<erw...@nile.intac.com>
Phillip A. Erwin, Focused Student, Workaholic, EMT in training
Future Biology/Pre-Med student at Rutgers College, Rutgers University.
Archimedes Plutonium
Archimedes...@dartmouth.edu (Archimedes Plutonium) writes:
> In BLUE the story was about a composer writing the music for the United
> Europe who gets accidently killed in a auto crash. BTW, I do not think
> BMW appreciates that ad and in my mind I bet it must have been some
> deliberations to use BMW and why not have the accident just on speeding
> rather than a mechanical fault? Was the Kieslowski hinting something
> about a United Europe in that accident?
Someone told me that it was not a BMW, and if so, my mistake:
--- Someone ---
Try Alfa Romeo (164). This might be more his commentary on the Italian
car
industry than anything else. On the other hand, brake fluid is shown
dripping
from a leaky wheel cylinder early in the film... do you not think this
may
have been sabotage?
Alfa Romeo was credited in the end as supervising the auto crash scene
and a
disclaimer is made in the credits about the Alfa Romeo 164.
--- Someone ---