Krzysztof Kieslowski employs various filmmaking techniques to show the different ways that his characters from the Three colors Trilogy: Blue, White, & Red, and from The Double Life of Veronique engage with their reality. Whether it is engagement with the self, or with the outside world, this engagement often elicits the most intimately private human emotions & experiences from his characters. These elicited emotions are then articulated by whatever film technique(s) that Kieslowski employed for that scene.
My first example of Kieslowski employing filmmaking techniques to convey character engagement with their reality is depicted in The Double Life of Veronique. Weronika expresses to her father that, for some odd reason, she has a “strange feeling” that does not feel alone in the world. Later in the film, Weronika catches a glimpse of her doppelganger, Veronique. During this captivating moment, all Weronika’s focus is directed toward the impeccable resemblance between her and Veronique. Weronika seems to be completely oblivious to the political strife unfolding in the background. Kieslowski places Weronika in front of a barricade of armed & shielded police; shallow focus is used so that Weronika’s entire upper body is in focus, while having the blockade of police in the background and out of focus. By having an in-focus Weronika in front of an out-of-focus gang of police Kieslowski effectively shows that Weronika’s enchantment with the sight of Veronique is fulfilling her “strange feeling” of not feeling alone in the world. The way Weronika’s “strange feeling” encompasses her to the point of oblivion is the same way that any human’s own internal issue is attended to before any other endogenous issue. Weronika pauses for a moment to watch as a bus, who carries Veronique, drives away. Weronika is so utterly mesmerized by the figure in front of her eyes that the sociopolitical conflict of her country means nothing to her in this moment. There can be an argument made for the degree to which politics plays a role in an individual’s life. For some people, politics may be a domineering force which dictates the every-day decisions of their life, but for the rest of society, politics may merely feel like a subtle entity that provides a bubble in which its inhabitants can operate in. Although this bubble of the political sphere seems insignificant, it ultimately dictates what a person can or cannot do within their society, so in a way, politics affects everyone in its society to a degree. For Weronika, her momentary reflective pause amidst the disastrous political turmoil indicates her lack of concern for how society is changing at that moment. The only thing that matters to Weronika is that her feeling of companionship to a doppelganger now has a tangible veracity to it due her the detection of Veronique. This moment in The Double Life of Veronique shows how an individual realizing their intuitive senses were correct can become so captivating that an individual becomes completely oblivious to their immediate surroundings. My second example of Kieslowski employing filmmaking techniques to convey character engagement with their reality occurs in Blue when Julie is sitting on the hospital porch right before a woman intrudes and attempts to ask her questions about her dead husband. Here, Kieslowski uses sound, lights, camera movement, character eyeline, and production design to convey both an engagement with a strange reality and Julie’s engagement with grief. At first, we see Julie resting on a chair in an outside porch, then a wave of classical music awakens Julie from her slumber. Then, the eyeline of the now alarmed Julie follows the camera as it tracks back and forth; we can see Julie make momentary eye contact with the camera (or perhaps the audience). Julie’s eye contact implies that she sees something that wasn’t there before, perhaps a different world or even a separate dimension within her own reality. The classical music that startles Julie is a recurring sonic motif used as an indication for Julie re-experiencing the grief of her dead family. In this scene, there is no explanation to show that the music that Julie reacts to is diegetic, so there should be no reason for Julie to be reacting to sounds at all unless the music is coming from inside Julie’s head. Julie’s reaction to what could be diegetic or non-diegetic sound is Kieslowski’s way of showing how a person who has lost a loved one can experience random bursts of feeling that remind them of their deepest griefs. In this scene, the color blue is extremely prevalent. Blue is a color that connects Julie to her deceased family members, especially Julie’s daughter. In this same scene, Kieslowski uses a blue light (that seems to penetrate through blue tinted window panels) to burn the frame and fill Julie with an overwhelming blue atmosphere. By using the blue light to engulf Julie, Kieslowski shows that the feeling of grieving over a loved one is so engrossing and overpowering that it can occupy the entire world around you. My third example of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s employment of filmmaking techniques to convey character engagement with their realiry is embedded within the story told in White – which is Kieslowski’s second feature from the Three Colors Trilogy. There is a moment in the film when Karol is tasked to do something incredibly difficult – to kill the extremely depressed and suicidal Mikolaj. In a moment of clever thinking, Karol uses a blank bullet to trick Mikolaj into thinking that he has shot him. This near-death experience that Mikolaj goes through then convinces him to change his mind about suicide and allows him to live his life anew. Here, one of the more prominent filmmaking techniques that Kieslowski employs is the editing of time within the story. Kieslowski uses the editing to slow down the time it takes for Mikolaj to fall the ground after he’s been “shot”. This momentary suspension of time accurately conveys what Mikolaj must be experiencing since he believes that he has just been shot. The halt of time allows for not only Mikolaj, but also the audience to be suspended in their own disbelief. For a short moment, Mikolaj experienced the intensity of ceasing to exist. Yes, Mikolaj wanted “less” pain, which is why he asked Karol to take his life, but what Mikolaj has realized shortly after nearly dying is that pain is not the only thing that goes away after death. There are other human passions that evacuate the soul after death such as euphoria, joy, laughter, comradery, and love. Mikolaj realizes that these human passions will bring so much more fulfillment than any releasement of pain would, which then leads him to choose life rather than suicide. To comment on character motivation of the same scene in White, Kieslowski indirectly conveys Karol’s contemplation over a human life by acting as a guardian savior for a stranger. An example of this is when Mikolaj’s physical body is falling to the ground after it is “shot” by Karol. Karol was given the option to shoot and kill Mikolaj with a promise for a large sum of money; but Karol’s conscious decision to load a blank in the barrel of his gun convinces me to believe that at some point outside of the on-screen story Karol was contemplating Mikolaj’s salvation. Deciding the fate of entire human life is no simple task; and among the people who are privileged that task are police, soldiers, doctors, political figures, judicial figures, and teachers – all professions which require an individual to occupy a stressful environment. Karol must have accumulated an unwanted an immense stress that weighed on his shoulders due to the contemplation of whether he should take a human’s life. This off-screen contemplation with a human life is Kieslowski’s way of indirectly showing how the decisions of a pressing issue will mean nothing if those decisions are not acted upon; and once Karol acted upon his decision to save Mikolaj, not only did he receive a large sum of money, Karol also received a lifelong friend who continued to aid his endeavors. My final example of Kieslowski employing filmmaking techniques to convey character engagement with reality is explored in Red, Kieslowski’s final film of the Three Color Trilogy. Kieslowski explores the degree to which seemingly everyday decisions effect other humans. By having the Judge watch a newscast of a tragic ferry accident, Kieslowski shows how not only a character in the film engages with their reality, but also forces the audience to engage with the reality within the story. At the end of the film, all the main characters from the entire Three Colors Trilogy miraculously come together as survivors of a tragic ferry accident. The filmmaking technique that Kieslowski employs is the use of newsreel. By using newsreel, Kieslowski convincingly depicts a one in a billion chance that the accident could be a real event. Kieslowski wants to let the audience know that human beings “Influence people around us whether we know them or not.”; and by using newsreel, an extra layer of authenticity and unblemished realness is added when we see handheld cameras capturing the ferry accident. The engagement with reality is reinforced by using newsreel because now the audience is involved. The audience member gets to watch these same tragic events on the television as if they were at home watching the news. This makes an audience member think that an event like this could occur in their own reality outside the movie screen. Kieslowski effectively asks the audience member “what if this were to happen to me?”. When a mother watches news coverage of a child dying of unnatural causes, the first thought that pops in that mother’s head is the safety of their child and how devastated they would be if their child died of unnatural causes. When the audience member watches newsreel of the mysteriously miraculous survival of the characters the audience member may ask themselves, “what if an event such as this one happens to me”, or “have my past decisions led me to event like this before”. So, by using newsreel Kieslowski is effectively showing character engagement with reality within the story told in Red and even forces the audience member to think about their own ideas of reality. In conclusion, Krzysztof Kieslowski was a director who employed a variety of filmmaking techniques to exhibit the way in which his characters engage with the reality within their story. The characters’ engagement with their reality often elicit intimate human emotions; and it is those human emotions that Kieslowski wants to show to his audience. WORKS CITED Three Colors: Blue. Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski. The Criterion Collection, 1993. Kanopy. Web. 9 Dec. 2019. Three Colors: White. Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski. The Criterion Collection, 1993. Kanopy. Web. 9 Dec. 2019. Three Colors: Red. Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski. The Criterion Collection, 1993. Kanopy. Web. 9 Dec. 2019. The Double Life of Veronique. Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski. The Criterion Collection, 1991. Kanopy. Web. 9 Dec. 2019. Kikasola, Joseph G. The Films of Krzysztof Kieslowski: the liminal image. New York, NY, The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004.
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11/5/2022 04:15:54 am
Live even in. White energy thank. White beautiful board modern.
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