Mike Brown

2/13/17

International Film

Three Colors: Blue

1. Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.

After World War II, France entered a new era of filmmaking known as French New Wave

cinema. The style set the standard for how French filmmaking was handled and a slew of

important releases were spawned. There was a rebellion in this era, with filmmakers

going against the grain and finding new techniques and styles for storytelling, visuals,

and editing. These new techniques continued into the 90s, which brought us the Three

Colors trilogy, which included Blue.

2. Find a related article and summarize the content.

Rushton, Richard. "Reading Three Colours: Blue." Senses of Cinema. N.p., 08 June 2011.

Web. 12 Feb. 2017. http://sensesofcinema.com/2000/feature-articles/blue/

The article raises some good analysis questions about this film and creates a wider sense

of depth about it. Are we really seeing the film through Julies point of view? Is the car

crash really blocked from Julies memory? Is Julie pretending? We see that the camera is

always on Julie, and totally focused on her. From that, we see that Julie rarely shows her
emotions. Does she really feel the grief of this situation? Whats important to think about

is the fact that we do not see the car crash happen, we see the results of the crash but we

never see the impact. This may lead us to the assumption that we arent supposed to think

about it and maybe thats how Julie sees it. There are many scenes in the film where the

scene will go black with her husbands music accompanying the dark screen, which could

mean that Julie is blocking those memories out. There are many questions and ideas to

think of when viewing this film, and the interpretation can be different from viewer to

viewer.

3. Apply the article to the film screened in class.

This article opened my eyes to many concepts in the film. It made a lot of the minor

details make sense. Upon viewing the film, I couldnt quite grasp the visuals and ideas

that were being thrown at me. Reading this article helped clear the fact that blue was a

very important visual aspect of the film, and that many things needed to be thought about

and questioned. It is clear that Julie was experiencing grief and a struggle to overcome

these feelings, but taking a deeper look at her emotions, reactions, body language, and

even the way the scene was filmed can make these feelings look differently towards the

viewer. This article has made it clear that this film cannot be viewed on a surface level,

but must be thought about and dove into.

4. Write a critical analysis of the film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result

of the screening, class discussions, text material and the article.

Three Colors: Blue is a very deep and emotionally driven film. The film plays on the

feeling of grief and the desire to recover and move on, a feeling most people can relate to.

Throughout the film, small elements become big reminders of the past. The colors blue

and red are shown in many key scenes to represent the feelings the character is going

through. The title makes us aware of this, and so while viewing the film we become

highly aware of visuals and colors and the depth becomes clear quickly. It is definitely a

film that Ive had to sit on. Upon viewing it, I really did not enjoy the film. It felt unclear

to me and confusing, but sitting on it and thinking more about it made the idea of the film

make sense to me. To properly understand it and enjoy it, I think I may have to see it

again.

CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM

1) (x) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.

2) (x) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I
clearly explain that in the paper.

3) (x) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used
indentation and citation within the text.

4) (x) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the
bibliography in the text of the paper.

5) (x) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.

6) (x) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another
way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.

7) (x) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or
originality.
8) (x) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the
research and ideas used in my paper.

Name: Mike Brown Date: 2/13/17