Blue

Joshua Haimann

Blue

In the film Blue, by Krzysztof Kiesiowski, the main character Julie appears to be an odd woman at first; there seems to be something about her that she’s either hiding or trying to cover up. There is a troubling scene where she is in a hospital and attempts to commit suicide but is just unable to follow through with it. After being released she doesn’t seem to know what to do now with her husband having passed away. He was one of the world's great composers, and Julie tries to make a clean break of the past; selling off all their mutual possessions, and even going as far as attempting to start a new life for herself in an apartment in the city of Paris. While memories of her husband still come back from time to time she is haunted by the absence and the grief that is bottled up insider her. A copy of her husbands great unfinished symphony seems to keep Julies attention even though it appears to consumer her with sorrow. She eventually comes to a point where she needs to make a decision on whether to finish the piece or leave it unfinished and unpublished forever to torment her. Music plays an intricate element of the plot in that it illustrates Julie's efforts to be isolated from everything even though she rarely ever seems to; that only seems to occur when shes swimming and even then it doesn’t last very long. Just like the music cannot be made with a single note, it requires harmony with the other instruments, and how different people can represent different kinds of music. The same can be seen with her relationship with Olivier.

            This film seemed longer than it really was, maybe because of the limited dialogue and the constant cut scene transitions. Also the way the music was used to emphasize or enhance a scene, usually at the end, was a bit excessive at some points. It seemed like there were many instances where the was ten to fifteen seconds of panning images and loud music. Perhaps I wasn’t able to fully understand what these types of scenes are meant to add to the film. I thought the plot of the story was good though. Once the film ended and the whole story had been told, I felt the big picture of the film was a good story. I enjoyed watching the development of the unfinished symphony mostly; how Julie was fighting heself and her feelings about whether or not to let someone else finish it, finish it herself or just destroy the cursed thing and never let it haunt her again. . . complelling stuff.