White Three Colors Trilogy DVD with Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy, Janusz Gajos (R) +Movie Reviews

A film of love & divorce, life & death

L. L. Moore | Seattle, WA USA | 08/29/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This film is the second in Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Trois Couleurs" trilogy ("Blue," "White," and "Red," after the colors of the French flag). While it contains some quite surprising plot twists, overall it doesn't have the same emotional impact as the first and last movies do. Zbigniew Zamachowski plays Karol Karol, a Polish immigrant living in Paris with his wife, Dominique (Julie Delpy). As the film opens, Karol and Dominique are in divorce court; she wants the divorce, he doesn't. She wins, and he is left with nothing but a large suitcase -- in which he manages to send himself back to Poland, with unexpected results. While white is traditionally the color of marriage, in this film it is the color of divorce. Throughout the movie the sky is a bleak, almost colorless shade of white, reflecting Karol's mood. The divorce proceedings take place in a white marble courtyard, and after the hearing Dominique drives away in a white car. When Karol returns to Poland, the countryside is buried under a layer of snow. More than that, the color symbolizes the sterility of their marriage: Dominique's grounds for divorce are that the marriage has never been consummated. For the rest of the film, Karol struggles to rebuild his life and to win back Dominique. The movie is enjoyable, with highly original subplots. The actors turn in fine performances, and the direction (as one would expect from Kieslowski) is intriguing without being heavy-handed. However, for a film that focuses on such emotional topics as love and death, it fails to rouse intense emotions in the viewer. END"

The most under-rated of the 'Three Colours' trilogy.

darragh o'donoghue | 05/24/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"'White' is a refreshing improvement on its portentous predecessor 'Blue', a dazzling tragicomedy about an impotent Polish hairdresser, Karol, who is unceremoniously divorced by his Parisian wife, thrown out onto the streets without a sou, a possport or much French. Busking on the Metro, he meets a fellow Pole, the lugubrious Mikolaj, who smuggles him back to their home country. Determined to exact revenge on his wife, Karol begins to trade very profitably on the black market.Maybe it's because Kieslowski is back in Poland, but 'White' is a much 'lighter' film than its predecessor, not in the sense of insubstantial, but in the director's relaxing the grip of his elaborate style, allowing his effects emanate from his story, his wonderful characters and the Polish landscape overlooking the post-communist embrace of (crooked) Western capitalism. Though still glossy compared to his earlier films, the relentless striving for poetic preciosity that marred 'Blue' is checked. Perhaps the return to Poland allowed Kieslowski to make an authentically East European film, a kind of absurdist shaggy dog story, its black comedy aching with anguish. The almost-ridiculous, little-man clown-hero could have bumbled from Gogol or Kafka (or silent cinema?), rumpled, besuited, a bit roly-poly, self-important despite being victim to a fate with a very sick, humiliating sense of humour - his admiring gaze at one of the film's many pigeons ends with dirt sliming down his shirt, just before a court appearance; the bank teller who cuts his frozen credit card is suitably, bureaucratically, inexorably faceless. The film's comic tension emerges from the disparity between the character's unintentional individuality, his being made seem eccentric because of the unfortunate things inflicted on him, and others' reaction to him; and his dehumanisation, both comically, as he is smuggled by suitcase to Poland, a devalued commodity fetish, only to be purloined by airport thieves, and, more bleakly, in the hardening of his soul as he becomes more successful at being a capitalist - the ironic message of 'White' seems to be that money and power is the key to sexual potency. Karol's natural self was deemed a social failure, so he has to play a part, even if it risks killing his soul, even if he must play a corpse, become his own ghost though he tries to assert the primacy of his body. His progress is symbolised in the film by the importance of language (translating, interpreting and misunderstanding), with epiphany only possibly with its transcendence in a physical, non-verbal communication, perhaps the human equivalent of what Kieslowski tried to do in his films, reach viewers through pure cinema. Like 'Blue', and all his films, 'White' is structured around recurring and reconfigured imagery - birds, suitcases, glass, statues, combs, 'lucky' coins, snow etc., - but, again, because they belong to the story's world, rather than being imposed on it by a style, they seem much more effective. 'White' isn't perfect - the plot is damaged by nagging implausibilities, and the film certainly dips in the second half, but that's inevitable after the fleet comic energy preceeding it, swept along by the tango melodies of Zbigniew Preisner's score, a welcome contrast to the bombast of 'Blue', and again more rooted to place. Once again, Kieslowski's irony, his play with viewpoint and fantasy, suggests we don't take his images or plot developments at face value."

I'm a tough film sell but this was sensational

Omni | 07/02/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not an easy consumer of films---I've never seen E.T., nor Jaws nor Jurassic Park, nor most of the Indiana Jones films, my interests are most esoteric, creative. I slept thru the day and subsequently wa sup teh night with nothing to do so I dug out my video tapes that I hadn't seen yet. First Blue and then White. White is amazing. Little Karol is heartbreaking adorable and ... and as he progresses through the film becomes almost dynamic, ..., charismatic with the power he soon weilds. He's a simple man, simply in love with a woman who may or not have married him to bilk him---I wa snever quite clear if she saw an opportunity with this renowned Polish hairdresser or if he truly failed her in the marriage. She makes much of his impotence but it seems to stem from his worship and adore for her that he doesn't want to sully her with carnmal passions. Unfortunately she's a carnal woman. Finally Karol gets himself sent back to Poland in a suitcase (hilarious by itself) and goes to work for the quasi-Polish mob and eventually tricks them. What I appreciated most about this film was that Karol is not a dumb man, nor is he a loser, he's simply a man too far in love with someone who doesn't appreciate the depth of that love. Yet what make sthe film a masterstroke is the otherside that love comes out to---there is indeed a thin line between love and hate. The way the plot itself meanders, self aware of it's destination with only vague hints as to its' intentions also make this a triumph. Karol's love-revenge at the end is so subtle, so devilishly simple and yet a true, true comeuppance to this woman that it realizes itself as giving her what she wants, what she needs and then makes her ask for what he wants. If you love someone you set them free but if you adore someone you create a huge White space within their consciousness about ones self. Domonique will never, ever forget not truly begin to fathom Karol and how he loved her. It just occured to me that perhaps certain peopel don't understand love and must be put away for teh sake of those who love too much---another meditation on this film. Yes, I will be sending it to Aisha the Actress."

First Among Equals

The Loved One | Lovely Southern California | 07/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In downtown Warsaw, where so much of "White" is set, there was an electric sign celebrating Poland's recent release from the Iron Curtain of communism by praising Bill Clinton and splashing around an American flag. The electric sign, though, was not like the monumental Panasonic sign in New York's Times Square. Rather it was more comparable to the signs composed of light bulbs that can be found in major league baseball stadiums. I thought of that sign many times throughout "White," how meager it looked in a nation already so deprived. "White" deals with the disillusionment and failure of one man who represents the disappointment of a nation. When the protagonist, Karol, returns to Warsaw from Paris, after being rejected and betrayed by his French wife, Dominique, through divorce and infidelity, and by the French court, whom Karol believes has cheated him in the divorce by giving him nothing because he cannot speak French (both a clear metaphor for the West's disregard of Poland), he is greeted by a city where bands of thieves roam the land like the Middle Ages, and gangster capitalists own everything and can buy anything. Karol then aspires to become part of this amoral ruling class, thereby becoming more equal than anybody else. In "White," besides the inequitable wealth between Karol and his fellow Polish countrymen, there is an intricate interplay between the affluence of the West and the lowered expectations of Poland. In Paris, Karol and is wife owned a clean well-lit salon, but back in Warsaw, his brother's salon has little more than a gaudy electric sign to distinguish it from the days of communist rule, and it is located along a muddy, unpaved road. A loan shark, who hires Karol to protect him, gives Karol what amounts to a cap gun as his weapon. And even an expensive office building in downtown Warsaw only has a few phone jacks. This comparison is perhaps Kieslowski's message that there is no perfect equality, either within a nation (as demonstrated through both Karol's amassed wealth and influence, and the discrimination against his at the hands of the French judicial system) or between nations. Kieslowski also suggests, through the relationship between Karol and Dominique, that perhaps love can bridge this gap."

Mouse's revenge

Joseph Haschka | Glendale, CA USA | 05/16/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Mouse's revengeWHITE is one in a trilogy of French films also comprising BLUE and RED.As the film opens, Polish emigre Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) arrives in a Parisian court for his divorce hearing. His wife, the ravishing Dominique (Julie Delpy), is giving him the toss because he no longer satisfies her sexually, although she admits he was hot stuff when they first met in Warsaw.After the dissolution of the marriage is decreed, Dominique dumps Karol's possessions, all contained in a large trunk, into the car park and drives off. Karol soon discovers that she's also cut off his access to their joint bank account. Karol, now down and out and soliciting handouts in the Paris Metro, absorbs the abuse without any overt sign of anger, even after his ex figuratively pushes his nose into the fact that she's copulating with another man. Karol is the meekest and most inoffensive of men. Let's not mince words; he's a wimp.With the help of another Pole, Mikolaj (Janusz Gajos), Karol returns to Warsaw by an unusual route. Once arrived, he literally ends up in a ditch. Rock bottom is a hard place. Karol is an award-winning hairdresser, and he begins working in his brother's beauty shop. Through good luck and a series of shrewd moves unrelated to the hair trade, he becomes rich. And it's also clear that he remains obsessed with Dominique.WHITE is somewhat less subtle than BLUE, and therefore demands less cerebral exercise on the part of the viewer; BLUE tries too hard to be obscure. Karol is an enormously endearing character, much like a puppy that's been kicked. And, though we don't know what his grand strategy is, we recognize that he has a plan that he's clearly implementing. The lovely Juliette Binoche in BLUE is a more aloof figure as she struggles to recover from a family tragedy, and it's only from close-ups of her face that the audience can infer what's going on inside. WHITE is thus, to this viewer, the more satisfying of the two.Zamachowski's performance is solid, and Mikolaj is the friend that anybody could hope for. And Delpy's Dominique is eye candy that would drive any sober man on a fevered quest.It's said that revenge is a dish that's best eaten cold, and WHITE suggests such a meal. The very last scene strongly implies, however, that Karol ultimately lacks the requisite dispassion."

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