 A film in three minutes. Free colours, blue. As controversial as it might be to say, if you haven't heard the name Krzysztof Kiszlowski or seen any of his work, then quite frankly, you don't know cinema. And if that sounds like a typical pompous YouTuber kind of remark from yours truly, then hear me out. Because Kiszlowski's legendary status as being one of the greatest filmmakers of all time is well deserved, with his magnum opus arguably being the iconic free colours trilogy. Inspired by the national French motto of Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité, the free colours trilogy stands to this day as the Polish director's most recognisable work by audiences outside of his native country. Each of the free films narrative symbolise and explore the ideals and concepts behind the French Revolution and its tricolour flag, with Liberté represented by the colour blue, Egalité by white, and Fraternité by red. The story of the first film blue follows Julie, the wife of a famous European composer, Patrice, who tragically dies in a horrific car crash along with their daughter. After an attempted suicide, Julie slowly recovers and begins to distance herself from her old life, selling her possessions and moving to Paris in the desire to liberate herself from the past. But when her late husband's assistant Olivier, a man Julie has feelings for, attempts to finish Patrice's final symphony for a concert of European unity, Julie is forced to start facing her grief and come to terms with her own family's demise. But in doing so, she soon discovers that her husband had a secret lover, who is also now pregnant with his child. For each film in the trilogy, the use of colour acts as a powerful motif. For the first entry, blue is used heavily throughout, both at times in subtle and in far more obvious ways. This stylisation of light is a trick used by Kiszlowski to heighten the attention of the audience, forcing us to notice and question the use of blue in a scene whilst absorbing the narrative information each moment contains. For Julie, blue light is a representation of the past that she is attempting to move away from, and it often appears whenever she is contemplating the car crash. The director himself has said the trilogy's titles and choice of colour simply rested on the fact that the films were funded by French production companies, and if they had been made elsewhere, the colours would have been different, but the stories would stay the same. Juliet Benoche's performance as the grief-stricken Julie is as subtle and captivating as the film's exploration of the concepts of liberty itself. Whether that be emotional, spiritual or physical liberation, the assorted cast of supporting characters act as representations of the kind of liberty she attempts to obtain as the story progresses, showing her glimpses of a person that she could become if she so dared, and they provide important lessons to her about the consequences of her self-imposed journey that she undertakes. As the first film in the trilogy, blue provides a vivid introduction to the levels of narrative mastery Kiszlowski as a filmmaker was capable of, and also acts as perhaps his most accessible film for first-time viewers who want to become more familiar with his work. It's difficult to summarise a film designed to complement and be complemented by two other stories, but blue on its own is proof enough that storytelling in Kiszlowski's hands is as close to perfection as anyone could hope to achieve.