THREE COLOURS: BLUE

You could say the cinema is littered with great trilogies, some 'intentional', others accidental. However, there is no doubt that Krysztof Kieslowski intended "Three Colours: Blue" to be the beginning of a trilogy linked by the final moments of the third film and together they make one of the greatest trilogies in all of cinema. The colours are those of the French flag though you don't actually have to know that or indeed what they stand for to appreciate this great movie. Certainly, the first and third parts are masterpieces in their own right and if the middle one, "White" isn't quite a masterpiece it is still a remarkable piece of work.

At the beginning of "Three Colours: Blue" a car accident claims the lives of a father and his five year old daughter. His wife, (a superb Juliette Binoche), survives but is seriously injured. The man was one of the world's most famous composers, (and Zbigniew Preisner's brilliant score will testify as to why), though there are rumours that his wife may have written some, (if not all), of his music and Kieslowski's film deals with grief, anger and redemption all anchored in Binoche's performance.

In this film, magnificently photographed by Slawomir Idziak, blue is the colour that predominates; it seems to seep into every frame of the movie and becomes, both symbolically and literally, a character in itself. This was clearly the work of a great filmmaker in total command, both of his subject and his medium, hugely intelligent and very moving without a touch of sentimentality to be seen anywhere.