Agnieszka Holland

The film begins with clips that track a telephone call between London and Geneva, where a French university student and part-time model, Valentine Dusot (Irène Jacob), is talking to her emotionally infantile but possessive boyfriend. During her work as a model, she poses for a chewing-gum campaign, during the photo shoot the photographer asks her to look very sad. While walking back home Auguste, a neighbor of Valentine's, drops a set of books and he notices that a particular chapter of the Criminial Code was open at random and he concentrates on that passage. While driving back to her apartment, Valentine accidentally runs over a dog. She tracks down the owner, a reclusive retired judge, Joseph Kern (Jean-Louis Trintignant). He seems unconcerned by the accident or the injuries sustained by Rita, his dog. Valentine takes Rita to a veterinarian, where she learns that Rita is pregnant. Valentine takes the dog home. The next day, she talks to her boyfriend over the phone and relates how she came to acquire the dog. He becomes angry since they initially met when she ran over his dog accidentally some years before, and wants her to take the dog back. While walking Rita, the dog runs off again and Valentine figures that it went home to Kern, where she finally finds the dog. He says that Rita is now hers since he wishes for nothing in life. Earlier that day she had received a lot of money in the mail and she figures out that it was Kern who sent her the money to pay for the veterinarian's bill, but he got the amount wrong. Kern goes inside to get some change but does not come back out. Valentine wanders into his house and finds him listening to his neighbors' private telephone conversations. Valentine is appalled and threatens to denounce Kern to his neighbors. Kern challenges her to do this and points out one neighbor's residence. At first, she goes to do so, but does not tell them anything, seeing that their daughter is also listening in on the conversation. She goes back to Kern and asks him to stop eavesdroping but he replies that he has been doing it all his life, but now he knows where to find the truth. Kern points out an attractive man to Valentine in his window. He suspects him to run the entire heroin market in Geneva but cannot hear his calls because he uses a Japanese phone. Valentine insults him and Kern concludes that she has a strong feeling against drugs, and after a bit of conversation Kern figures out that Valentine's feelings towards drugs stem from a piece of news in her paper and a photo of a young man, her brother, who discovered that he is not his father's son and has been using drugs for a year. Kern tells her that it shall make no difference that she denounces him for his spying, the people's lives he listens to shall eventually turn into hell. She leaves saying that she feels nothing but pity for him. While visiting Kern, Valentine also hears a conversation between Karin and Auguste, where they discuss if they should go bowling. Valentine covers her ears, but from the very little she heard she concludes that they love each other. Kern disagrees. That evening Valentine is alone at home and hopes that her boyfriend shall call but it is the photographer who calls, saying that her poster was set up that evening and asks her bowling to celebrate. Meanwhile, Auguste takes his exam and passes it and becomes a judge. Karin asks him if he was asked any questions regarding the article that was open when he dropped his books. Auguste says 'yes'. Karin gives him a fountain pen as a gift and he wonders what the first judgment he signs with it will be. That evening, Kern writes a series of letters to his neighbors and denounces himself, and the community files a class action suit against him. At the law courts, he sees Karin meeting another man. Earlier, Auguste had missed a call from Karin and tried to call her back but never hears from her again. Valentine reads in her paper a piece of news about a retired judge that spied on his neighbors and she goes to Kern telling him that she said nothing to anybody. He confesses that it was him just to see what she would do. He asks her in and shows her that Rita has had seven puppies. They discuss that on their last conversation she spoke about pity but he later realized that it was actually disgust. He wonders about the reasons why people obey laws and it turns out that often it is more on selfish grounds and from fear than about obeying the law or being decent. It is his birthday and they have a couple of drinks. During their conversation he reminisces about a sailor he acquitted a long time ago, only later realizing he had made a mistake, and that the man was guilty. However the man later married and had children and later grandchildren and lives peacefully and happy. Valentine says that he did what he had to do, but Kern wonders how many other people that he acquitted or condemned might have seen a different life had he decided otherwise; he sympathizes with them and with his neighbors who have been throwing stones at his windows, saying that in their circumstances and being them he might have done the same, but in his role as judge he never stepped out of his shoes and never really understood other people. He also suggests that being in a position of deciding what is truth and what is not is a lack of modesty and vanity on behalf of humankind. When the conversation turns to Kerns' past romantic life he avoids the question by telling her about a dream he had about her. Valentine tells Kern about her intended trip to England to visit her boyfriend. Kern suggests that she take the ferry. Meanwhile, Auguste is unable to reach his girlfriend Karin since graduation. One evening he goes to her place and sees her legs wrapped around another man. Distraught, he leaves. By chance Auguste sees Karin and her new boyfriend in a restaurant, he gets her attention but when she rushes outside to try to explain he hides from her. Kern calls Karin's personalized weather service and inquires about the weather in the English Channel, which she expects to be perfect as she is about to take a trip there (with her new boyfriend who owns a boat). The day before Valentine leaves, she invites Kern to a fashion show where she is modeling. After the show, they speak about the dream he had about her, where she was 50 years old and happy with an unidentified man. The conversation then turns to him and the reasons why he disliked Karin. Kern reveals that before becoming a judge, he was in love with a woman very much like Karin, who betrayed him for another man. While preparing for his exam he once went to the same theater where the fashion show took place and he accidentally dropped one of his books. When he picked it up, Kern studied the chapter where the book accidentally opened, which turned out to be the crucial question at his examination. When he broke up with his girlfriend he followed her across the English Channel but never saw her again, because she died in an accident. Later, he was assigned to judge a case where the defendant was the same man who took his girlfriend from him. Regardless of this connection, Kern did not recuse himself from the case, since the connection was only known to him and condemned the man, the judgment was legal but he subsequently resigned his post. Valentine takes her ferry to England, and Auguste is also on the ferry, although the two never quite meet each other. Suddenly a storm rises and sinks both the ferry and the boat with Karin and her boyfriend. In the final scene, Judge Kern views a newsreel report about the sinking, and learns that of the 1,435 passengers and crew, only seven survivors were rescued. By coincidence the survivors are the main characters from the first two films of the trilogy; Julie and Olivier from 'Blue'; Karol and Dominique from 'White'; and Valentine and Auguste, who finally meet for the first time, as well as an English bartender named Stephen Killian. As with the other movies, the film's final sequence shows a character crying - in this case, the judge - over the events that has transpired... but the final image replicates the iconic chewing-gum poster of Valentine.

After opening with a brief, seemingly irrelevant scene of a suitcase on an airport carousel, the story quickly focuses on a Paris divorce court where Polish immigrant Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) is pleading with the judge (the same legal proceedings that Juliette Binoche's character Julie briefly stumbled upon in the previous film 'Blue'). Despite his difficulty in understanding French, Karol is made to understand that his French wife Dominique (Julie Delpy) does not love him. The grounds for divorce are humiliating: Karol was unable to consummate the marriage. Along with his wife, he loses his means of support (a beauty salon they jointly owned), his legal residency in France, and the rest of his cash in a series of mishaps, and is soon a beggar living on the streets. He only retains a 2-franc coin that he got as change from the phone while trying to speak with his now ex-wife. In a Paris Métro station, performing songs for spare change, Karol meets and is befriended by another Pole, Mikoaj (Janusz Gajos). While Karol has lost his wife and his property, Mikoaj is married and successful, he offers Karol a job consisting of killing someone who wants to be dead but does not have enough courage to do it himself. Through a hazardous scheme, Mikoaj helps him return to Poland hidden in the suitcase shown at the beginning of the film, which is later stolen by employees at the airport. The airport thieves, eager to find something valuable inside their stolen trunk, are angry when they open it and they find Karol inside. The thieves beat up Karol and leave him behind in a nearby garbage dump. Despite his mishap, Karol returns to working as a hairdresser with his brother (Jerzy Stuhr) whom he now moves in with. After a while, Karol, no longer content to working at his brother's salon, quits his job and sets up to make himself a pot of cash in newly capitalist Poland. Karol takes another job as as a bodyguard in a seemingly innocent cash exchange office. Mikoaj meets Karol in a Warsaw Metro tunnel for the execution of the "suicide", it turns out to be that Mikoaj is the intended victim and asks Karol to kill him. Karol shoots a blank into Mikoaj's chest and asks him if he really wants to go through with it as the next bullet is real. Mikoaj refuses and is able to feel alive again. Using his position as a deceptively foolish bodyguard, Karol spies on his bosses and discovers their scheme to purchase different pieces of land that they knew were going to be targeted by big companies for development and resell for large profits. Karol beats them to it, and then tells his ex-bosses that if they kill him all his estate shall go to the Catholic Church, and they are therefore forced to purchase all the land from him. With the money he gained from this scheme and with the payment from Mikoaj, the two go into business (of a vaguely defined but possibly illegal nature) together. Karol becomes ruthlessly ambitious, focusing his energies on money-making schemes while learning to speak French and brooding over his wife's abandonment. He uses his new financial influence in a world where, as several characters observe, "you can buy anything" to execute a complex scheme to first win back Dominique, and then destroy her life. Karol takes his revenge against his ex-wife by faking his own death after which she shows up for his funeral. Karol then sneaks into her hotel room and has sex with her to prove his potency again. Then afterwords, Dominique is arrested and imprisoned for his 'murder'. The final image of the film shows Karol secretly visiting his wife in prison and staring at Dominique through the window of her prison cell. Karol then suddenly feels ashamed at himself for this revenge plot against his wife and openly cries... realizing that he must finally let go of her in order to move on with his own life.

Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly) is a ten year old British girl living in India around the cusp of the 20th century. Her parents (Irène Jacob and Colin Bruce) are neglectful, leaving her in the care of an Aya (Parsan Singh), a native servant, while they attend parties and partake in other leisures and obligations. This leaves Mary with a sour disposition and all the anger and bitterness of someone twice her age. Her anger leads her to act out, but she never cries. One night, while her parents are away at a nearby party, Mary breaks her mother's small, ivory elephant and hides with the pieces under her parent's bed. Suddenly, the earth shakes and things in the room begin to fall off their counters and break. Elephants roar and people outside scream as the earthquake continues. Mary's parents both perish in the devastation and she is left alone. Six months after the incident, Mary arrives by ship in Liverpool, England where she is picked up by Mrs. Medlock (Maggie Smith), the head keeper of Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire. The manor is owned by Mary's sullen uncle, Lord Archibald Craven (John Lynch) whose late wife was the twin sister of Mary's mother. Mrs. Medlock instructs Mary to keep out of trouble and not to disturb her uncle, who would rather not see her at all, while she finds ways to amuse herself. Mary is dissentful towards the manor which appears cold and dank among the wintry grounds it sits on. However, she finds a kind heart in her servant, Martha (Laura Crossley), the daughter of one of the cooks. Martha is patient with the angry Mary, and assists with her dressing and amusement, giving her a jump rope as a gift. She also speaks of her brother Dickon (Andrew Knott) who is around Mary's age and may provide her additional company while Martha works. Mary soon discovers that the manor holds many secrets and mysteries. She hears crying at night and, when she questions the servants, they deny the sounds. One evening she finds a hidden door in her room that leads to abandoned sectors of the manor. She discovers one particular room, dusty but brightly decorated, that she is interested to find belonged to her aunt. An ivory elephant, one identical to her mother's, sits on the bureau inside of which Mary finds a key. During one of her daily explorations of the grounds, Mary meets an old gardener named Ben Weatherstaff (Walter Sparrow) who warns Mary not to go snooping about, though he tells her that she reminds him of the late mistress. When Mary inquires about the grounds hidden behind a large stone wall, Ben tells her that it was a garden owned by Mrs. Crane and that it's since been locked away to anyone since she died. When he leaves, Mary is met by a red-breasted robin which leads her to the ivy covered wall and a secret doorway hidden within. Through the keyhole, Mary can see the expanses of a large garden. Remembering the key she found, Mary fetches it and tries it on the door: it fits. Inside, she finds that the garden is overgrown and appears dead in the chill air. Having originally thought that her uncle wanted nothing to do with her, Mary is surprised when she is summoned to meet him. She is brought to his study where she sees her crook-backed uncle for the first time. He is saddened to see that Mary looks just like her mother and, therefore, like his wife. Though he contemplates sending her to better accomodations at a boarding school, Mary begs to stay at the manor, asking only for a bit of earth to grow things in. Craven allows her to stay and bids her leave before he packs and leaves the manor, fleeing the coming spring, Mary theorizes. The staff at the manor speak of her uncle as a cursed man, forever enveloped in grief since the loss of his wife. Mary goes to visit her garden again and comes across the nature-loving Dickon. She shows him the garden on oath of secrecy and he relieves her worries of its health when he shows her that all the plants in the garden are still alive, just asleep. He helps her remove invasive weeds and shows her the proper way to plant flower bulbs. Mary smiles again. When she notices a swing hanging from a nearby tree, Dickon tells her that Mrs. Craven died falling from it. One night, Mary dreams of her mother. As her toddler self begins to cry after losing her mother, Mary awakens to the sound of real crying. She takes a candle and follows the sounds to a chamber she's never seen. Inside, a boy her age lies in a large bed and, when he sees her, stops his crying and beckons her forward. He introduces himself as Colin Craven (Heydon Prowse), the master of the house while his father's away. The children learn they are cousins and Colin tells Mary how he's never left the house and cannot walk while displaying his morbid obsession with death. He tells her that his mother died giving birth to him and, being so weak, was fed the notion that he will remain so until he develops a hunch like his father and then die. Medlock tends to Colin personally and rigorously instructs the other servants to provide for him. Mary, however, cannot see anything wrong with Colin besides the fact that he's cooped up inside all the time. His selfish behavior angers her further, though she regularly visits him while being sure to avoid Medlock who would highly disapprove. One day Mary, sickened by Colin's despondence and convinced that all he needs is some light, opens the closed windows and puts Colin in his wheelchair to sit by them. She leaves him in his room, but the light blinds him and, when he sees Mary outside with Dickon, he begins to throw a tantrum and falls out of his chair. The concerned servants place Colin on the bed where he continues to scream until Mary returns and begins massaging his back. When Medlock finds them together, she demands that Mary leave until Colin orders her to let them be. With Mary's encouragement, Colin finally decides that he may be ready to venture outside and makes the announcement to all the servants that he, Mary, and Dickon, will explore the grounds alone. Mary and Dickon take Colin in his wheelchair to the garden his mother used to tend. He is in awe and is convince that the place is filled with hidden magic. When old Ben discovers them, he blurts out that Colin is naught but a cripple. Offended, Colin stands for the very first time. As spring arrives and flowers bloom and animals are born, the children continue to visit the garden together and Colin grows stronger by the day, eventually learning to walk. They decide to keep his progress a secret and wish to surprise Lord Craven when he returns. Medlock, however, sees Mary as a threat to Colin's health and is convinced that her wild ways and disobedience will prove fatal to the boy. The children visit the garden every day and Mary and Dickon grow close. Colin expresses his love for Mary but she assures him that they will always be together as they look at photographs of their mothers. Colin feigns weakness in front of Medlock and the servants though he is against his old treatments, including taking ice baths to soothe his 'swollen' legs. Medlock soon grows convinced that Colin and Mary should be separated and she locks them in their rooms, intent on keeping them there until Craven's return. However, Mary escapes through the secret door in her room and reunites with Colin and Dickon. They escape the manor and run to the garden in the middle of the night to perform a magic rite to summon Colin's father home and set his spirit free. Craven, meanwhile, dreams of his wife and hears her calling him to her garden. He wakes with a start and immediately heads home. The servants are surprised to see him home unannounced and scramble to accompany him, including Medlock. He demands to see his son but, when they walk into an empty room, Medlock tells him that it must be because of Mary. They go to her room to find it also empty and Craven resolves to follow his wife's words. He leaves the distraught Medlock in the manor as he walks towards the garden where he hears laughter and finds the secret door open. He walks inside where he finds Colin blindfolded, but walking, playing blind man's bluff. Mary and Dickon emerge from their hiding spots as Craven approaches Colin. Thinking the figure is Dickon, Colin reaches up to touch his father's face before removing his blindfold in surprise. Father and son embrace one another in happiness but Mary runs away, saddened and thinking that no one wants her. Dickon tries to console her, but she runs off alone. Colin and Craven soon find her and Craven tells her that every miracle that has happened (the garden growing once more, Colin's strength, and now Craven's return to the place he thought he'd never see again) is because of her and she IS wanted. Everyone returns to the manor where the servants and Medlock are astounded to see Colin walking and running beside his father. Dickon rides his white pony over the Yorkshire estate as Mary narrates that her uncle learned to laugh, she learned to cry, and the garden remained open to all. And, if you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.

Julie, wife of the famous composer Patrice de Courcy, must cope with the sudden death of her husband and daughter in an automobile accident she herself survives. While recovering in the hospital, Julie attempts suicide by overdose, but cannot swallow the pills. After being released from the hospital, Julie closes up the house she lived in with her family and takes an apartment in Paris without telling anyone, or keeping any clothing or objects from her old life, except for a chandelier of blue beads that presumably belonged to her daughter. For the remainder of the film, Julie disassociates herself from all past memories and distances herself from former friendships, as can be derived from a conversation she has with her mother who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and believes Julie is her own sister Marie-France. She also destroys the score for her late husband's last commissioned, though unfinished, work: a piece celebrating European unity, following the end of the cold war. Snatches of the music haunt her throughout the film. Julie reluctantly befriends Lucille, an exotic dancer who is having an affair with one of the neighbors and helps her when she needs moral support when the tennants in their apartment building want to evit her . Despite her desire to live anonymously and alone, life in Paris forces Julie to confront elements of her past that she would rather not face, including Olivier, a friend of the couple, also a composer and former assistant of Patrice's at the conservatory, who is in love with her, and the fact that she is suspected to be the true author of her late husband's music. Olivier appears in a TV interview announcing that he shall try to complete Patrice's commission, and Julie also discovers that her late husband was having an affair with a younger woman. While both trying to stop Olivier from completing the score and finding out who her husband's mistress was, Julie becomes more engaged despite her own efforts not to be. She tracks down Sandrine, Patrice's mistress, and finds out that she is carrying his child. Julie arranges for her to have her husband's house and recognition of his paternity for the child. This provokes her to begin a relationship with Olivier, and to resurrect her late husband's last composition, which has been changing according to her notes on Olivier's work. Olivier decides not to incorporate the changes suggested by Julie, stating that this piece is now his music and has ceased to be Patrice's. He says that she must either accept his composition with all its roughness or she must allow people to know the truth about her composition. She agrees on the grounds that the truth about her husband's music would not be revealed as her own work. In the final sequence, Julie and Olivier are having sex while the Unity of Europe piece is played (which features chorus and a solo soprano singing Saint Paul's 1 Corinthians 13 epistole in Greek), and images are seen of all the people Julie has affected by her actions as she faintly smiles through her tears.