Trois couleurs: Bleu (Three Colors: Blue, 1993)

Trois couleurs: Bleu (Three Colors: Blue, 1993) is a French film directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. This is the first movie of three. Each one is named after a color of the French flag - blue, white, and red, which represent certain French ideals. Like the purpose of the color blue in the flag, this first story of the trilogy represents liberty. It tells the story of Julie, the tragedy she survives, and the way she copes with the outcome.

In the beginning of the movie, Julie survives a horrible car accident, but loses her young daughter and her husband, a proclaimed music composer. Shortly after learning the most unfortunate news, while still in the hospital and recovering from her injuries, Julie attempts to committ suicide by overdosing on medication. She is unable to follow through on this desperate act, however, and lives on, trying to deal with her tragedies in another way.

After being released from the hospital, Julie decides to forget everything about her past life. She cuts off all connections she has from her previous life and leaves her former home, bringing hardly anything with her. She stops keeping in touch with former friends and acquaintances, and moves away, attempting to start a brand new life.

However, the harder she tries to forget about her past life, the more it seems to come back to her. Julie tries and tries to distance herself from the memories of her recently deceased husband and daughter, but eventually can no longer deny their legacies. With the help of Olivier, a close friend of the family, Julie acknowledges and faces her loss. Together, they work on completing her late husband's score, which is supposed to be a masterpiece honoring the unity of Europe. During all this, Julie discovers that her late husband was having an affair with another woman. She meets her, learning that the mistress is also pregnant with her late-husband's child. Julie comes to terms with the facts and even ends up generously giving her and her husband's former estate to the mistress and unborn child. Julie also seemingly ends up in a relationship with Olivier, who had apparently always loved her.

Trois Couleurs: Bleu is a tragic, yet beauitful and inspiring movie of life and death. It is a story which represents liberty from tragic emotion. Throughout the story of the film, Julie learns that she can not simply forget her former life altogether, but must face the painful fact that her family is gone and honor their memory before moving on. The leading actress, Juliette Binoche, did an excellent job as Julie. She evoked strong emotions in her performance throughout the whole movie which made it easier to understand what the main character was going through.

The story was well-written and kept me constantly interested in what was going to happen next. All in all, Trois Couleurs: Bleu is a good movie and has me curious to see the other two parts of the Trois Couleurs trilogy.