Marian, a middle aged nurse, devotes her entire life to caring for her patients like a saint. She frequently is responsible for making the gravely ill feel at peace, often soothing them during their final hours. While she is an incredibly caring person, she is surrounded by sorrow and death, which begins to take a toll on her soul. Urszula Antoniak's Code Blue is a very powerful character study about one woman's subdued loneliness. Urszula Antoniak is certainly a filmmaker which understands the power of image, as this is a visually stunning film which has imagery evoking powerful emotions. Code Blue has a minimal amount of dialogue, instead opting to rely heavily on visuals to tell its story with fantastic results. This is the definition a character study, and Marian is certainly a tragic character who feels almost lost among the living. One scene beautifully illustrates this point as Mariam sits on a bus next to a healthy citizen. She seems to desperately want to rest her head on the stomach of this individual, almost as if to feel life, not death for once. What makes Mariam's character so tragic is how her closest companions tend to be her patients. The film beautifully illustrated how Mariam feels connection with these people, yet has to watch them die almost on a daily basis. There are so many great and interesting character decisions in this film like how Mariam keeps objects of her deceased patients as a reminder, not only of their lives, but of the connection she felt with them. Code Blue is a masterpiece of cinema because of Urszula Antoniak's ability to understand Mariam as a character. There are so many wonderful scenes which illustrated her emotions in visual, yet subtle ways. The film even hints to that fact that Mariam might be unable to create life for herself, but it is never concrete in this assertion. Urszula Antoniak's Code Blue is a film that some will find hard to stomach but their is no denying both its viceral power, as this is a searing portrait of a woman who can't seem to be good to herself. 9.5/10
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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