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Three Colors: White is one of Krzysztof Kieslowski's deceptively simplest films. Of the trilogy, it has received the least critical attention, overshadowed by Blue and Red. But White illustrates how Kieslowski is a cinematic "poet," a Polish artist whose rich audiovisual vocabulary expresses a profound vision of human fallibility, as well as transcendence. Ironic but tender, his style includes haunting images that suggest spiritual forces at work in the perceptual world. Co-written with Krzysztof Piesewicz, White is the second part of the trilogy, which Kieslowski said derives from the colors of the French flag - the concepts of liberty, equality, and fraternity. White, for which he won the Best Director Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, corresponds to equality - but in the ironic sense of "getting even," or revenge. Of all three films, it is the lightest and most humorous because of its picaresque quality; nevertheless, the tone is that of very dark comedy.
Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) - whose name literally means Charlie Charlie - loses everthing in a Paris courtroom: his French wife Dominique (Julie Delpy) divorces him for not consummating their marriage. The hapless hairdresser - now bereft of home, beauty salon (which they shared), car, and credit cards - is befriended in a metro bv a fellow Pole, Nikolai (Janusz Gajos); the latter, well-to-do and world-weary, agrees to smuggle Karol back to Poland in a trunk. Upon arriving in Warsaw, the oversize valise is stolen and Karol emerges from it to find angry thieves; they beat him, throwing him down a garbage heap from which he glimpses "home, at last." His brother Jurek (Jerzy Stuhr) is delighted to have him back, but Karol is not content to remain in their hair salon. In the newly capitalist Poland, he cleverly scrambles to entrepreneurial success, aided by Nikolaj. His aim - to get Dominique back, and to get back at Doininique - is realized when he stages his own death. She arrives for the funeral, only to be visited by a very live - and sexually potent - Karol. The longdelayed consummation of their marriage is followed by his disappearance and her arrest for his "murder." The film ends with Karol secretly visiting her in prison. Each is now clearly in love...