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Spoiler:  The film "White" in the trilogy "Blue" "White" "Red"

 

After viewing Kieslowski's "White" the other night, I found myself mightily

impressed with the way the camera work enhanced the storytelling, but I was a

bit confused by the ending and wonder if others could be of help.  Obviously,

Karol still has deep feelings about Dominique or he wouldn't be crying as he

looks up at her in her prison window.  I am assuming that he arranged his

"death" to draw her to Warzaw to be able to see her one last time, but he

also seems to have had some desire then to make his point about being a

potent fellow after all (by sleeping with her) and then seems to have wanted

to show her that he calls the shots, so he leaves her there in the hotel

room.  Has he set her up for arrest, or is that simply an ironic offshoot of

his staging his death?  If the latter is true, his crying at the end makes a

lot more sense to me than if he set her up.  (It suggests his willingness to

forgive her earlier behavior, which, I will have to admit, seems poorly

explained in the film.  She is certainly handy with a lighter, though.)  Is

he making nightly visits to the prison simply to look at her and hoping to

spring her, eventually, or is he leaving Poland at the end?  The nightly

visit notion would add to the irony of his situation, but why is he packing a

lunch, so to speak.  To give to her?  Is the "light at the end of the tunnel"

mentioned by the lawyer more than just recouping his money?  Is it an effort

to spring her from prison?  That would add a romantic touch.  But I'm still

wondering about her sudden rediscovery of compassion for him.  A graveside

conversion?  I did hear once in a rock 'n roll song that love is strange.

 

Dan Gribbin               [log in to unmask]

Ferrum College

Ferrum, VA 24088