Polish Director Looks to Flag for More Than Patriotism

Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, whose last film was the whimsical “Double Life of Veronique,” in which two young women never meet yet affect each other’s lives, has now completed an even more provocative film, “Blue,” which he plans as the first of three films named for the colors of the French flag. The trilogy, he says, will examine what the French motto, “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity,” signifies in the modern world.

“It’s worth it to stop and think about these three words,” said Kieslowski through a translator, although he has a fair command of English. “What do they mean? What do we mean when we say them? What is freedom for the individual? Do we really want it? These questions go hand in hand with human nature. In most places in the Western Hemisphere we have liberty, equality and fraternity--and we Poles have enjoyed them the last four years.”

Kieslowski, a lean, quizzical man of 52, talked in his West Hollywood hotel during a recent brief visit to Los Angeles. He’s not overly eager to explain himself but when pressed does so with tart humor. As a director, he is probably best known for “Veronique,” which grossed $2 million. He also directed “The Decalogue,” a 10-hour investigation of the meaning of the Ten Commandments for the modern world that was at the AFI Filmfest in 1990 and received wide praise. A Canadian woman bought the distribution rights for $200,000 and is, Kieslowski says, holding out for $5 million. At this point he despairs of his masterwork ever being released.

“The idea for the trilogy was not mine. It came from my co-writer, Krzysztof Piesiewicz. He’s an attorney by occupation, and a very good one, too, practicing in Warsaw. Such good ideas don’t come to filmmakers because they are too complicated! It was very easy for him to say, ‘Why not do three films on the three colors?’ Only afterward do the problems appear, because nobody knows how to make these ideas come true.”

Nevertheless, Piesiewicz and Kieslowski started working on the trilogy screenplays while still working on “Veronique,” which was released in 1991. “I’m the one in charge of working,” Kieslowski said. “He’s the one in charge of reading. We chat, I change, we chat, I change, we chat, I change again.”

An elliptical film made in France, “Blue” approaches its theme of liberty in a most unexpected way--by imagining what a young woman (Juliette Binoche) will do with her life once she has lost her husband, a world-famous composer-conductor, and their small daughter in a car accident. “For me it is a totally natural approach,” Kieslowski said. “If I can imagine a woman losing her husband and daughter, I can imagine how she can wonder if she can continue living.

“Naturally, there are several possibilities for her. She could jump out the window, but she doesn’t have that kind of strength. She can go to the cemetery, look at pictures and live in her memories for the rest of her life. However, we can also imagine that this is a woman of a different character, one who says to herself, ‘I have invested everything in my husband and daughter, they made my entire world. Suddenly, they are gone, and I will never invest my feelings in anything. I will never want anything else--no friends, nothing--because it’s unsafe.’ ” The whole point of “Blue” is to discover whether she can actually live this way.

“I have never lost a wife or a child in a car accident,” Kieslowski said. “Neither did my friend or any of my acquaintances. However, each of us has lost somebody along the way. You write out of life itself, out of the fear that it could happen to you.”

*

Composer Zbigniew Preisner, as renowned as Kieslowski himself, is as important a collaborator for the filmmaker as Piesiewicz. Music plays a crucial role in “Blue,” for the widow discovers she cannot entirely block out the thunderbolt-like fragments of the composition her husband was working on when he was killed.

“I think that the main reason I know the kind of composer I do is that he understands me as well as music. Preisner is talented, capable and unostentatious. It takes something to go to a composer and tell him, ‘Hey, listen, I want you to write music for the best composer in the world,’ and he says, ‘No problem, I’ll do that.’ ”

While not involved in its financing, Miramax is distributing the trilogy, which will be finished by the end of this year. “White” and “Red” are tentatively scheduled for release in the summer and fall of 1994, respectively.

“ ‘White’ is for equality, and it is a comedy,” explained Kieslowski of that film, which is set largely in Poland. “It tells the story of a young hairdresser, played by Zbigniew Zamachowski. Julie Delpy plays the wife whom he is divorcing in the first scene. The film has a good ending, if a good ending is possible in our day and time. . . . I never met anybody who wanted to be equal. Everybody wants to be a little more equal in everything--to have a better car, more money, a slightly better house.”

“Red,” the final film, is for fraternity, and is set in Geneva. It is the story of a university student played by Irene Jacob (the French star of “Veronique”) and an older gentleman, a retired judge, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant. They meet when she runs over his dog with her car.

Kieslowski explained that he felt compelled to film much of the trilogy outside Poland simply because of economics. “There is no money in Poland,” he said. “And even if there was money it doesn’t suit me to accept it. Because money is scarce, and if I accepted it, then there wouldn’t be any for someone else. Since I can find money readily and easily in the West, especially France, I cannot take that money from Poland. I have an apartment in Paris, but my place is in Poland.” Kieslowski and his wife, Marea, reside mainly in Poland.

“Blue,” however, which won the Golden Lion at Venice, has been rejected as Poland’s entry for foreign-language Academy Award consideration because it was shot in French rather than Polish. “I’m very disappointed and confused by the academy’s decision,” says Kieslowski. “I had hoped that the reason for making ‘Blue’ in France was very clear.”

Kieslowski said he became a filmmaker purely by chance--and hopes that his daughter, Marta, will not follow in his footsteps. “I never liked movies and still don’t go to the movies,” he said, although he allows he likes the work of Bergman, Fellini, Wajda and Altman. “I’m not your typical director who loves this medium and cannot live without it. I don’t like making movies, either, but I don’t know how to do anything else.”