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Co-written, produced, and directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, White is the second in the Three Colors trilogy, following Blue and preceding Red.
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This film illustrates the second theme of the Three Colors trilogy, equality, through the two desires of the protagonist Karol Karol: improving his station in life, and getting even—i.e., revenge. In contrast to the introspective, melancholy, and eventually hopeful stories of Blue and Red, it is a black comedy.
After opening with a brief, seemingly irrelevant scene of a suitcase on an airport carousel, the story quickly focuses on a Paris divorceDivorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage, which can be contrasted with an annulment which is a declaration that a marriage is void, though the effects of marriage may be recognized in such unions, such as spousal support, child custo court where Karol is pleading with the judge—the same proceeding that Juliette BinocheJuliette Binoche (born March 9, 1964) is a French actress, born in Paris, France. Born to a movie-director father and an actress mother, at age 15 she was sent to Paris to study at a specialized arts high school, after which she attended the National Cons's character briefly stumbled upon in Blue. The immigrant Karol, despite his difficulty in understanding French, is made to understand that his wife Dominique does not love him. The grounds for divorce are humiliating: Karol was unable to consummate the marriage. Along with his wife, he loses his means of support (a beauty salon they jointly owned) and the rest of his cash in a series of mishaps, and is soon a beggar.
In a Paris subway station, performing songs from his native PolandThe Republic of Poland a country in Central Europe, lies between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) t for spare change, Karol meets and befriends another Pole, Mikolaj. While Karol has lost his wife and his property, Mikolaj is married and successful but suicidalSuicide (from Latin sui caedere to kill oneself) is the act of ending one's own life. It is considered a sin in many religions, and a crime in some jurisdictions. On the other hand, some cultures have viewed it as an honorable way to exit certain shameful. Through a hazardous scheme, Mikolaj helps him return to Poland, where he returns to working as a hairdresser with his brother (played by Jerzy Stuhr; Stuhr and Zamachowski also played brothers in the tenth episode of The DecalogueDekalog The Decalogue ( 1988) is a Polish film series, originally made as a television miniseries, directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski and co-written by Kieslowski with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, with music by Zbigniew Preisner. It consists of ten one-hour films,, likewise a comedy about capitalism).
With the shift of scene to Poland, Karol becomes ruthlessly ambitious, focusing his energies on money-making schemes and eventually going into business (of a vaguely defined but possibly illegal nature) with Mikolaj, while learning French and brooding over his wife's abandonment. He uses his new financial influence—in a world where, as one character observes, everything is for sale—to execute a complex scheme to first win back Dominique, and then destroy her life by faking his own death and framing her for murder. The end of the movie, filmed months after the rest of the film, softens Dominique's image; Kieslowski said that he was not satisfied with the previous ending and wanted her to seem less of a monster.
The film has a political subtext, in which Karol's impotence and financial helplessness in France, and subsequent rise as a somewhat shady capitalist, mirror the attempts of Poland to advance from its disadvantaged position within Europe. Though Kieslowski had cheered the downfall of Poland's former communist regime, in later life he expressed a nearly equal distaste for the free-market adjustments that followed, believing that opportunities for real equality had been passed up in the pursuit of money and European prestige.
As with the rest of Three Colors, White contains numerous images that at first appear unconnected but are revealed to be flashbacks, flash-forwards, or references to other films in the trilogy. Like Blue, the film makes frequent use of its title color to convey a mood, alternately hopeful (clarity, innocence, ecstasy) and bleak (snow, stone, and the pigeon droppings that rain on Karol early in the film). At the very end of the next film, Red, the conclusion of Karol and Dominique's story is revealed in a simple fleeting moment.
1993 films Polish films Drama films French films