3.00pm: Have you recovered yet? Have your tear ducts dried and your ears stopped tingling? Last night Xan Brooks liveblogged Three Colours Blue, the first in Krzysztof Kieslowski's tricolour trilogy, all of which we're currently streaming on the film site. A wild old time was had by all, both above and below the line, and, hopefully, by those just watching quietly at home. Tonight, at 7pm, it's the turn of Andrew Pulver and Three Colours White; tomorrow Peter Bradshaw will be in the hotseat for the final instalment, alongside Joe Websper, the winner of our competition to come into the office and feed into Peter's blog.
As we found last night, as Xan wrangled the subtitles in the film and the text in the liveblog, nipping in and out of the comment thread as well is no mean feat. So Catherine Shoard will be on hand doing that tonight too (the previously-billed Henry Barnes is sadly off sick).
Hope you'll join us at 7pm tonight, when we invite you to press the play button on the stream, or on your DVD player, or simply on the movie as memorised in your mind. Until then …
Here's some more information about what we're up to, and here's some FAQ about the streaming.
Here's how you can stream Three Colours White.
Here's Peter Bradshaw's primer to the trilogy.
Read Derek Malcolm's original review of the film.
6.55pm: So who's looking forward to the live stream of Three Colours White, the second part of Krzysztof Kieślowski's trilogy? If you missed Xan Brooks' magisterial guide to Three Colours Blue last night, here's a link. We'll be pressing play tonight at 7pm.
6.58pm: For what it's worth, here's my take on the whole Three Colours thing. I saw each of them when they came out, thought they were pretty good, and never felt the an inclination ever to watch them again. I recall liking White the best – it was funny, and Polish, and seemingly less preoccupied with filming dark-haired women slinking around Paris looking svelte. But that's just my memory of 1993.
Peter Bradshaw's take on the trilogy is (as usual) fantastically astute - but when I saw them I was only just out of studenthood, and hadn't reached the dinner-party set. (Still havn't, if I'm being honest.) Looking back, I can see that the trilogy came along when I, a twentysomething professional film nerd just starting out in the world of work, was growing increasingly restless with what was then called arthouse cinema: luscious European (mostly French) dramas, stuffed with strange, cryptic emotions that didn't make a huge amount of sense. Blue, which I rewatched last night, was almost the paradigm of the form. When Red came up against Pulp Fiction at Cannes in 1994, my sympathies were definitely with the latter: then, Tarantino seemed as smart as the Europeans, and a whole lot funnier.
As a student in the late 80s, I'd become a massive fan of Kieślowski when A Short Film About Killing hit our shores – that's still an all-time top ten for me. It may not be a particularly original point of view, but I think his move to France took something away from his work; I found The Double Life of Veronique particularly unsatisfying, where Kieślowski's fondness for the elaborate concept was overpowered by strategic and budgetary concerns.
7.00pm: And we're off!
7.00pm: I do like an MK2 logo. Gives a film class.
7.01pm: While we're waiting, did anyone notice in Blue when Juliette Binoche blundered into a scene from White?
7.02pm: So, the suitcase. That'll be significant, I'm sure.
7.02pm: Bloke with the note must be Zbigniew Zamachowski.
7.03pm: And there's lovely Julie Delpy. She's a film director now, you know.
7.04pm: So we're elaborating the central theme here. Karol Karol and his wife have not got it together since their wedding. But he still loves her. If Kieslowski was a different director we'd have a Carry On film on our hands.
7.06pm: She's really gone off him, for sure. Poor Karol Karol. Time for an encounter with a toilet bowl.
7.07pm: In my excitement I must have missed Juliette B. She must have stumbled into that courtroom scene at some point. But it's tricky writing and watching at the same time.
7.09pm: Things getting worse for Karol Karol. No money, bank card snipped in half, his bed the pavement. And wasn't that the same recycling bin Juliette B watched an old woman try and get something in in Blue?
7.10pm: Now we're with Julie. She's not happy at seeing Karol Karol asleep in what looks like her hairdressing salon. He swallows her keys. No he doesn't! She can't resist his roguish humour.
7.12pm: Blimey! Could it be now they're no longer married, the old fires of lust are reviving themselves? Is this what Kieslowski means by equality? Damn, it's no good. Maybe Karol Karol can only do the business on home soil...
7.13pm: Kieslowski is VERY fond of that spotlight on his women actors' eyes. Juliette B spent practically the whole of Blue with one trained on her.
7.16pm: Karol Karol in the metro, doing the comb and paper. Let's pop over to our music expert Nick Reyland for the significance.
7.18pm: Hurray! Karol Karol has found a guardian angel in the shape of the rumpled Mikołaj, who says he'll take him back to Poland. The price? He has to kill someone - another suicidal Pole.
7.21pm: Nice poster of Le Mepris.
7.22pm: She's mocking him with self-love! Or is there someone else in the room? Karol's money has run out; he'll never know...
7.23pm: Bloke behind the window looks like Ray Liotta. Scary.
7.24pm: Aha, now we can guess what the suitcase is all about. If I know my montage technique, Kieslowski is telling is Karol Karol is inside that thing.
7.26pm: Presumably we're back in Poland with Mikołaj. But where's the suitcase. Comedy moment coming up, for sure.
7.27pm: Ah, here's a bit of "white" – the snow. Colour doesn't play quite such a massive part in this film as in Blue, clearly.
7.28pm: Yes, it's Karol Karol. Saw that one coming a long way off. But wouldn't the case get X-rayed, wonders my colleague Catherine Shoard. Plus the clasps must be very strong, she reckons. You lose 10 points for implausibility, Mr Kieslowski.
7.30pm: The bit Peter Bradshaw found hilarious. "Home at last!" The view is of a rubbish dump swarming with seagulls.
7.33pm: Now we look like we're back in an episode of the Dekalog. Gloomy Polish tower blocks, black eyes, lugubrious hairdressers. What more could you want?
7.34pm: So Karol Karol is looking to make a bob or two. He becomes of all things, a gun-toting security guard. Again, I sense a comedy moment coming up.
7.36pm: Karol Karol increasingly obsessed with plaster statuette as substitute Julie Delpy. Not healthy.
7.38pm: Karol Karol has to pay for his board in hairdressing. A bit of a haggle - seven heads a week.
7.40pm: These guys driving Karol around are up to no good. Kieslowski's acid comment on the postcommunist land grab, for sure.
7.41pm: Karol Karol looks like he's a bit sneaky himself. Is he planning to rook this hapless peasant, kick him out of his home and sell the place to the Ikea guys for a massive mark-up?
7.44pm: Ironic use of Christian icon as mirror. Religion replaced by narcissism. Kieslowski's keeping us on our toes here.
7.44pm: People always wreck phone directories in films. No wonder they got rid of call boxes.
7.45pm: Mikołaj is back. Looking more sinister than rumpled now.
7.47pm: So Mikołaj was the man he was supposed to kill all along! Or have I missed something? Karol Karol fires – but it's a blank! He's teaching Mikołaj to love life, no question.
7.51pm: More whiteout: Karol and Mikołaj slip and slide across the ice, screaming with life affirming glee.
7.54pm: Hey @JosephKern, thanks for the props. Since you're such a Kieslowski maven I feel humble. And music guy @nickreyland also – nice to be agreed with!
7.55pm: Karol Karol makes his play. Swindling all those peasants finally pays off.
7.57pm: Love the double breasted overcoat.
7.57pm: So Karol Karol has become a bigshot. Polish yuppies were wearing their hair slicked back in 1993.
7.59pm: More comb and paper work. Ironic, no?
8.00pm: Karol Karol is wearing everything double breasted this year.
8.01pm: But he still can't forget Julie Delpy. Which reminds me, we're an hour into this film, and she's only been on screen for about two minutes.
8.03pm: Karol Karol leaves all his money to Dominique. He really can't forget her.
8.04pm: So Karol is pulling the old fake-death scamola, in an attempt to lure Julie over to Warsaw. First step, getting a death certificate.
8.05pm: Then – blaagh – they have to buy a corpse. Hilariously, it's a "Russian import" who leaned too far out of a train window.
8.07pm: And there goes his lucky 2-franc bit, into the coffin with the dead Russian.
8.09pm: And there she is! Julie stands dramatically by the graveside. On another fantastic gag, Kieslowski has Karol pull out a pair opera glasses to check her out.
8.11pm: Ba-da-boom. On goes the light - Karol's in the bed. He confesses all. Why did she cry at his funeral, he wants to know. Perhaps she was actually sad?
8.12pm: The big question: now he's officially dead, can he get over his issues in the trouser department, if you know what I mean?
8.13pm: Looks like it.
8.13pm: That's rather clever of Kieslowski. At the crucial moment of climax, the screen goes ... white. They're equal now, maybe?
8.15pm: Karol scarpers; it's all this equality, you know. Julie now desperate to find him. Suddenly the fuzz burst in. Things certainly getting tricky for her.
8.18pm: She tells the cops he's alive.
8.19pm: Karol is getting ready to go. He gets a present of cherry jam. How sweet.
8.23pm: The opera glasses again. Is that Julie in jail?
8.24pm: That sign language is slightly baffling, but music guy Nick Reyland tells us it means she want to remarry him.
8.26pm: And that's it!
8.27pm: Karol's nasty little plot to get Dominique imprisoned for his murder has backfired – she's in jail, he still loves her, what's a jealous ex-husband to do? We'll never know, because that's where Kieslowski cuts the story off....
8.29pm: Thanks for watching – Three Colours White is definitely a lot more fun than Blue, but then again it's not so thematically ambitious. Join us again tomorrow night when the legend that is Peter Bradshaw will be sitting in the chair, along with competition winner Joe Websper, and a pear-brandy-based drinking game. It's been great watching it with all your comments and feedback; I'll sign off now.
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