Zbigniew Preisner's Three Colors Trilogy: Blue, White, Red by Reyland Nicholas W.;

Author:Reyland, Nicholas W.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1392782
Publisher: Scarecrow Press, Incorporated

Bliss

Responding to a scene in Véronique where Weronika’s double comes to rest in a sliver of sunlight, Kickasola suggests that “[m]oments like these are critical in Kieślowski’s films because they function without words but exude an extraordinary phenomenological impact: we feel the warmth and sympathize with her inner state and need for respite.”118 The Kieślowski music-films, as noted already in the present analysis, contain pivotal moments in which Preisner’s music or the sound design are deployed to push audio-viewers into the experiential realm. In Blue, many of these moments are startling shocks. When Julie, echoing the scene in Véronique, experiences a moment of blissed-out plenitude as she listens to the busker while basking in a sunny park, the phenomenological counterbalancing of Blue’s more anguished moments entices one to relax with her and enjoy this brief but telling liberation.

In addition to the sunshine, Julie basks in musical warmth. The moment of bliss occurs as, ostensibly, she listens to the busker. The scene’s representation of the mesmerizing effect of music on Julie as she begins to “flow” evokes a statement by Henri Bergson: “A melody to which we listen with our eyes closed, heeding it alone, comes very close to coinciding with this time which is the very fluidity of our inner life.”119 In turn, this may remind one of Kieślowski: “It’s a saying as old as the world—freedom lies within. It’s true.”120 If Julie has been healing internally through her repetitively rhythmic regime of simple pleasures—coffee and ice cream, swimming (another kind of “flow”), listening—then her moment in the sun marks the pinnacle of the restorative period of her grieving; as her doctor tells her in a nearby scene, she is clearly in good “spirits.” But is she only listening to this music?

Most critical responses to this scene fixate on the old lady and the bottle bank, reading Julie’s ignorance of that struggle—a recurring motif in all three films, each time eliciting a revealing response from the central protagonist—as a sign of self-absorption.121 In what, however, is Julie so immersed that she does not notice the struggling old lady? One could argue the case that she is not listening to the busker but composing the music one hears, and that she is enraptured by her own musical thoughts. Any creative musician knows this kind of “flow”: one’s mind and inner ear become so engaged with “hearing” a new musical idea that one fails to hear what someone real is saying. The busker is not seen during this scene: one only hears what one at first assumes to be his diegetic music-making. He could indeed be “present,” outside of the frame. Yet given music’s “side-by-side” liberty in the film, Julie could also be imagining—and thus composing—the music that she hears. If she is creating the music, this scene is an indication of the role that making music will play in her final phase of grief-work: re-engaging with the traces, musical and otherwise, of her loss.122

The screenplay is revealing here. Julie is in a trance, it says, and does not notice the old lady.

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