Three Colors: whiteIt's a hard thing to be treated as an inferior, humiliated and scorned. It is deplorable to be treated this way by the one you love--but this is exactly the position in which Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) finds himself in White, the second entry in the Three Colors trilogy by Krzysztof Kieślowski. The film opens with Karol being divorced by his heartachingly beautiful wife, Dominique Vidal (Julie Delpy) because she claims that they never consummated their marriage. Dominique throws Karol out on the street with no money, forcing the rejected husband to adapt or die.
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Like the other entries in the Three Colors trilogy, White adopts a theme drawn from the ideals of the French Revolution, represented in the national flag, in this case "equality". The theme of equality is strong in the film because of the notable absence of it in Karol's life, especially his relationship with Dominique. Karol is from Poland, a foreigner in France; with his rough French and awkward mannerisms, he sticks out like a sore thumb. Even in his divorce proceedings, he needs a translator to inform him of the reason Dominique is leaving him, and this is but one of many humiliations to follow--the first being a Parisian pigeon defecating on him (even the birds are rude). There is a stereotype that the French hate foreigners, and White exploits this to some extent via Dominique. Although it is apparently true that after their marriage ceremony, Karol was not able to make love to his new wife, she barks at him when in private that she left him because he didn't understand anything, implying that his inability to converse in her language made her feel unloved...his intimacy problems appear to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. It is clear that Karol acknowledges his sexual anxiety, and feels inferior to his wife, and to his new, unfamiliar home. But it is not his home, and he eventually returns to Poland to forge a new life, and hatch a wild and severe plot. Karol's anxiety is clearly linked to his lack of confidence from so many triggers, but when he has lost everything--save a two-franc coin he fought to reclaim and a bust of Marianne (a national symbol of the French Republic) as reminders and totems--he is without restraint and makes daring decisions to reform his life...decisions he is amazingly adept at doing.
They say the best revenge to inflict upon someone hurting you is to get better and live well. All signs seem to point to Karol being in agreement with this sentiment, to a point. Karol recalls when he first laid eyes upon his ex-wife at a hair styling competition--a profession in which he was apparently exceptional at performing--where Dominique was having her hair worked on by a friend, and he couldn't take his eyes off of her. And Dominique is beautiful, with hair that is quite lovely, but she is cruel and treats Karol thusly when he comes crawling back to her (formerly their) salon, where she browbeats him after he fails to perform yet again, setting fire to the curtains and calling the cops to blame him for attempted arson. She swats him down with shocking intensity when he calls her after seeing another person in her apartment window, and she invites him to overhear her orgasm with another man. We are drawn to sympathize with Karol because of the abject cruelty Dominique subjects him to in an effort to drive him from her life. But small, quiet moments suggest that Dominique begins to second-guess her savage rejection of Karol...but it is too late. At one point, Karol seeks to make some money by working for someone "in the money business", the implication being that there is some kind of illegal activity going on, but Karol does not appear to have any moral reservations about this. It does not make him a bad man, but it highlights the state of affairs in his native country and how business is conducted. Karol is supported in Poland by his brother and a man he met in Paris, another fellow Polish named Mikolaj (Janusz Gajos), who carries his own kind of suffering, but his friendship with Karol helps him to view his life in a brighter way. The two eventually become financial partners, and prosperity begins to flow for Karol because of his tenacious dedication to becoming wealthy. But Karol is haunted by Dominique, cannot get her out of his mind. He learns French by himself, and carries around the two-franc coin to remind him of his humble rebirth and the bust of Marianne to remind him of Dominique, France, and the impetus behind this long, secret movement of his. For Karol, revenge is something more, but also something bittersweet and ironic. His revenge is a lesson he wishes to teach, to turn the tables on Dominique. In someways, you could argue whether his motives are justified from the heartbreaking humiliations she inflicts upon him, or whether his obsession is unhealthy and consumes him. Either way, White allows for this ambiguous interpretation, two sides of the same coin, like man and wife.
Recommended for: Fans of a bittersweet comedy/drama about the perils of a marriage not founded on good communication, and how foreigners can feel so alone even in a crowded city when the language is not their own. Also a great tale of a man who is stripped to nothing--has to ship himself home in his own suitcase--and rebuilds out of raw nerve.
They say the best revenge to inflict upon someone hurting you is to get better and live well. All signs seem to point to Karol being in agreement with this sentiment, to a point. Karol recalls when he first laid eyes upon his ex-wife at a hair styling competition--a profession in which he was apparently exceptional at performing--where Dominique was having her hair worked on by a friend, and he couldn't take his eyes off of her. And Dominique is beautiful, with hair that is quite lovely, but she is cruel and treats Karol thusly when he comes crawling back to her (formerly their) salon, where she browbeats him after he fails to perform yet again, setting fire to the curtains and calling the cops to blame him for attempted arson. She swats him down with shocking intensity when he calls her after seeing another person in her apartment window, and she invites him to overhear her orgasm with another man. We are drawn to sympathize with Karol because of the abject cruelty Dominique subjects him to in an effort to drive him from her life. But small, quiet moments suggest that Dominique begins to second-guess her savage rejection of Karol...but it is too late. At one point, Karol seeks to make some money by working for someone "in the money business", the implication being that there is some kind of illegal activity going on, but Karol does not appear to have any moral reservations about this. It does not make him a bad man, but it highlights the state of affairs in his native country and how business is conducted. Karol is supported in Poland by his brother and a man he met in Paris, another fellow Polish named Mikolaj (Janusz Gajos), who carries his own kind of suffering, but his friendship with Karol helps him to view his life in a brighter way. The two eventually become financial partners, and prosperity begins to flow for Karol because of his tenacious dedication to becoming wealthy. But Karol is haunted by Dominique, cannot get her out of his mind. He learns French by himself, and carries around the two-franc coin to remind him of his humble rebirth and the bust of Marianne to remind him of Dominique, France, and the impetus behind this long, secret movement of his. For Karol, revenge is something more, but also something bittersweet and ironic. His revenge is a lesson he wishes to teach, to turn the tables on Dominique. In someways, you could argue whether his motives are justified from the heartbreaking humiliations she inflicts upon him, or whether his obsession is unhealthy and consumes him. Either way, White allows for this ambiguous interpretation, two sides of the same coin, like man and wife.
Recommended for: Fans of a bittersweet comedy/drama about the perils of a marriage not founded on good communication, and how foreigners can feel so alone even in a crowded city when the language is not their own. Also a great tale of a man who is stripped to nothing--has to ship himself home in his own suitcase--and rebuilds out of raw nerve.