--- title: "Three Colors: White: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/three-colors-white/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/three-colors-white" critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 11 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Three Colors: White (1994): what the critics said Critics' score 75 from 11 reviews: 11 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. Every review in is favourable, and the praise gathers in the same places. Most critics read the film as a deadpan black comedy about revenge and equality, and find the comedy lands: the absurd is played as plain fact, and the humour has a gallows edge. Zbigniew Zamachowski’s lead performance is singled out again and again for its mix of bafflement and resourcefulness, and several reviews admire the sharp but affectionate portrait of a Warsaw turning to gangster capitalism. The reservations are small and consistent. The recurring complaint is slightness: this is widely seen as the least weighty film of the trilogy, raw beside Blue, and a few reviewers feel the comedy and the love story sit uneasily together. The Independent thinks the female lead is underwritten; Empire finds the symbolism and moralising intrusive. The spread is narrow, with The New York Times alone treating it as a marvel rather than an agreeable minor work. ## The New York Times — Caryn James Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 June 1994. The critic finds 'White' a witty, deadpan marvel that contrasts sharply with the austere 'Blue,' praising its rich, light-handed storytelling and the lead performance's blend of bafflement and ingenuity. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/10/movies/review-film-blue-and-white-as-different-as-day-and-night.html) ## Radio Times — David Parkinson Rating 4/5. The slightest of the trilogy yet still admirable as a Chaplin-inspired comedy. It offers an unflattering yet affectionate portrait of democratic Warsaw and features a standout turn from Zbigniew Zamachowski. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-475kfn/three-colours-white/) ## Slant Magazine Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 8 March 2023. White is described as less a laugh-out-loud comedy than a bitter satire on Poland’s place in post-communist Europe. The review highlights the protagonist's rise to power and revenge plot, concluding that equality, like love, exalts in chains. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/three-colors-4k-uhd-blu-ray-review-krzysztof-kieslowski/) ## The Independent — Sheila Johnston Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 9 June 1994. The critic praises the film's startling intense vignettes, its vivid depiction of post-communist Poland in flux, sly gallows humour and brilliant editing, while noting some elusiveness in blending comedy and love story plus an underdeveloped female lead. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-reviews-white-with-a-hint-of-grey-sheila-johnston-on-the-new-releases-including-three-colours-white-the-latest-part-of-kieslowski-s-masterful-trilogy-1421622.html) ## Time Out — GA Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The second part of Kieślowski’s trilogy feels raw and slight after Blue, but delivers a droll black comedy about equality, revenge and desire. It skewers post-Communist Polish ethics while ending on a note of unsentimental humanity. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/three-colours-white) ## Empire — Steve Beard Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 27 January 2006. The critic calls it the most playful and accessible film in the trilogy, highlighting its picaresque romantic odyssey with black comedy, glum pathos and satisfying anti-capitalist satire, though noting bubbling symbolism and moralising. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/three-colours-white-review/) ## Los Angeles Times Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 13 November 2011. The critic praises the trilogy’s emotional depth and chromatic symbolism, noting that “White” unwinds with comic energy and a lurching tango score that is both exuberant and melancholy. It offers a wry commentary on Poland in transition through its love-story-gone-wrong. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-nov-13-la-ca-second-look-20111113-story.html) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 June 1994. Kieślowski treats the story of a Polish hairdresser’s humiliating divorce and improbable return to post-communist Poland in a deadpan style that makes the absurd seem factual. The film stands out for its sly comedy and the resourceful way the hero rebuilds his life and schemes to reclaim his ex-wife. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/white-1994) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 12 March 2003. The critic calls White an underrated entry in the trilogy, a briskly comic revenge scheme that only gels at the end into a master plan. Kieslowski's lightness of touch leads to a surprisingly affecting ending that stresses the equality theme in terms of matrimony. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/three-colors-trilogy-blue-white-red-dvd-1798198344) ## The Guardian — Derek Malcolm Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 9 June 1994. The critic finds White the easiest and most straightforward of the trilogy, a bleak but ultimately hopeful comedy from a hopeful pessimist that avoids bitterness despite its subject matter of marital breakdown and post-communist Poland. It stands out for its deft portrait of gangster capitalism and a superbly self-effacing performance from Zbigniew Zamachowski. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/nov/09/three-colours-white-review) ## Variety — Lisa Nesselson Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 28 January 1994. Festival review. The review calls it an entertaining, involving, bittersweet and droll second segment of the trilogy, highlighting the fine lead performance and ingenious rags-to-riches revenge tale filtered through abiding love. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/three-colors-white-1200435107/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/three-colors-white.md