Trois Couleurs: Bleu (aka Three Colors: Blue) (1993)

After her husband and daughter are killed in an auto accident which she survives, a woman (Juliette Binoche) severs all ties with her former life and attempts to live an isolated existence. Written and directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski (TROIS COULEURS: ROUGE). The first entry in Kieslowski's acclaimed THREE COLORS trilogy. Perhaps the most inaccessible of the three films, one has to stick with it before the film's themes begin to unravel themselves. Anchored by a potent performance by Juliette Binoche, the movie examines grief in a unique way that challenges our perception of what grief is and how it plays out. Visually, Slawomir Idziak's cinematography (often bathed in, yes, blue) is outstanding and Zbigniew Preisner's operatic underscore are major contributions. While often dark and bleak, the film is eventually life affirming. With Emmanuelle Riva, Benoit Regent, Florence Pernel and Charlotte Very.