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White (Three Colors Trilogy) |  | Directors: Krzysztof Kieslowski, Piotr Studzinski
Actors: Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy, Janusz Gajos, Jerzy Stuhr, Aleksander Bardini
Studio: Miramax
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.99
Buy Used: $5.64
as of 8/1/2010 02:46 MDT details
You Save: $9.35 (62%)
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 45698
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Original Language), Polish (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: DISD28656D
UPC: 786936204254
EAN: 0786936204254
Theatrical Release Date: February 18, 1994
Release Date: March 4, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
White is the second of witty Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowki's "three colors" trilogy Blue, White, and Red--the three colors of the French flag, symbolizing liberty, equality, and fraternity. White is an ironic comedy brimming over with the hard laughs of despair, ecstasy, ambition, and longing played in a minor key. Down-and-out Polish immigrant Karol Karol is desperate to get out of France. He's obsessed with his French soon-to-be ex-wife (Before Sunrise's Julie Delpy), his French bank account is frozen, and he's fed up with the inequality of it all. Penniless, he convinces a fellow Pole to smuggle him home in a suitcase--which then gets stolen from the airport. The unhappy thieves beat him and dump him in a snowy rock pit. Things can only get better, right? The story evolves into a wickedly funny antiromance, an inverse Romeo and Juliet. Because it's in two foreign languages, the dialogue can be occasionally hard to follow, but some of the most genuinely funny and touching moments need no verbal explanation. --Grant Balfour
Product Description
Second of a trilogy of films dealing with contemporary french society shows a man dealing with a polish immigrant whose wife wants to divorce him because he cant perform in bed Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 03/01/2005 Run time: 91 minutes Rating: R Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Black Comedy Called White July 19, 2009
Lynn Ellingwood (Webster, NY United States)
This movie highlights the idea of equalite or Equality. A man from Poland humiliated and rejected by his French wife returns to Poland where he finds a gangsterish mentality has taken over the country in new found capitalism and strives to make good. His adventures take him back to his wife where he finally has a trap set for her. They finally become equals and he is no longer "nothing". Now they are equal in their ability to torture and torment each other.
3 stars out of 4 February 2, 2009
One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Bottom Line:
The most plotted, most interesting, and (dare I say?) the most complete movie in Kieslowski's trilogy, White shows the machinations of a couple who are absolutely despicable yet completely identifable at the same time; if you found Blue too understated do not give up, for White will sooth your ruffled feathers.
Good September 24, 2008
Cosmoetica (New York, USA)
The middle film of Polish-French film director Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors (Trois Couleurs) trilogy of Blue, White, and Red is a very black comedy, and generally considered the weakest of the three films. This is true, although, given the high quality of the tercet, White (Blanc) is still an excellent film, and compared with the mind-numbing comedies that Hollywood regularly cranks out, it is exceptional. And, at a mere hour and a half, this 1994 film never drags on too long. However, one of the major misconceptions about the film and its hero, Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski)- literally Charley Charley, is that he is a Chaplinesque figure. I believe that the many critics who use this term intend it as a high compliment, as they reference the greatest of the silent era screen stars, Charlie Chaplin, and his character of The Tramp. But, in doing so, they show how little they understand of the character and its portrayer.
There is a range of emotion that The Tramp shows in both the short subjects and feature films he appears in that none of the actors whose performances have subsequently been compared with his have displayed. There have never been moments the equal of the roll dance in The Gold Rush, nor the ending of City Lights, where the blind girl realizes her seemingly rich benefactor is The Tramp, nor the scenes of modernity run amok in Modern Times, nor the dance with the globe in The Great Dictator. This is not to demean any of the later performances, for some, such as Giulieta Masina's role as Gelsomina in Federico Fellini's La Strada, or that of Zamachowski in White are excellent, but none rally come close to that Chaplinesque mix of lightheartedness and dark pathos. Karol, as example, is a far more dismal and dark character than any played by Chaplin. Right from the start there is something `off' about him. In Hollywood a character like his might end up a serial killer or child molester.
That all said, White is a delightful if flawed comedy, and had it been a Hollywood film it would probably rank much higher in critical opinion worldwide. It's merely because American minds have been so cauterized by bad art that a film like this has to be judged against its superior European counterparts, and its own siblings in the Three Colors trilogy, rather than the minor leagues that American cinema represents. Were it judged against the standard fart comedy mindset, or that of the tired `romantic comedy' formulae, it would be seen in a far greater light. Regardless, it is well worth seeing, and a good way to spend an evening. When was the last romantic comedy from America that such a claim could be made for?
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