Zbigniew Preisner

Krzysztof Kieślowski’s renowned Trois Coleurs trilogy begins with Bleu, a tragic drama following the life of Julie de Courcy. Within the first five minutes of the film Julie’s husband and daughter are killed in a car accident, of which she is the sole survivor. The rest of the film depicts Julie’s coping in what begins in a reclusive turning away from life, but develops by the end of the film into an openness and affirmation of life, expressing itself particularly powerfully in Julie’s kindness and passion for music. The film is explicitly meant to express a perspective on the subject of liberty, the ideal corresponding to the blue portion of the French flag. However, Kieślowski approaches the subject not from the common political understanding of the term “liberty,” but rather from the portrayal of Julie’s internal liberation from her trauma, depression, and self-destruction. In this essay I will show how Kieślowski’s masterful manipulation of music allows him to lead the viewer along the course of Julie’s subjective, internal liberation. The first instance of music occurs approximately nine minutes into the film and it is at a tremendously appropriate moment, namely, the funeral of Julie’s husband and daughter, which we see with Julie from the small screen of a portable television that Olivier leaves her. Music immediately develops two important associations for the viewer, the first coming from the immediate context of the scene in which music occurs, and the second…