WHITE
TROIS COULEURS: BLANC
1994,
Janus Films,
91 min,
France, Poland, Switzerland,
Dir: Krzysztof Kieślowski
The second film in director Krzysztof Kieślowski’s THREE COLORS trilogy is the simplest and most entertaining entry in the cycle, yet underneath the comedic surface lie some of the director’s most cynical attitudes. A luminous Julie Delpy plays Dominique, who leaves her impotent husband, sparking a series of skirmishes between the two in which Kieślowski expresses his theme of "equality" via its darkest implications - in terms of revenge and getting even. The film is both a deliciously biting sex satire and a witty portrait of Poland in the early 1990s; in contextualizing his characters within the failure of communism, Kieślowski argues that true equality is an unattainable pipe dream. In Polish, French, and Russian with English subtitles.