THREE COLORS: RED
A film review by Gareth Rees
Copyright 1994 Gareth Rees
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski Starring: Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintigant Camera: Pitor Sobocinski Producer: Marin Karmitz Editor: Jacques Witta Music: Zbigniew Preisner Duration: 99 minutes France/Poland/Switzerland 1994
Valentine (Irene Jacob, the star of THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE) is a model living in Geneva (the poster for RED shows a picture of Valentine used in an advert for confectionery). She runs over a dog belonging to a retired judge (jean-Louis Trintigant), and as a result becomes his confidante. In an attempt to shock her out of her idealism, the judge reveals to her that he spies upon the telephone conversations of his neighbours.
Valentine insists that something should be done, but learns that the connections between people are more complex than she realises. She listens to a married man talking on the phone with his male lover and determines to tell the wife about this betrayal, but then learns that the marriage is a happy one. She does not know which is the lesser evil: to tell, and break up the marriage, or keep silent, and allow the betrayal to continue. She keeps silent.
But the learning process is two-way. The judge explains that he had lost his youthful idealism when his girlfriend had left him on the day he passed his final legal exams. In the course of talking with Valentine he recovers some of this idealism and loses his cynicism. The conversations between Valentine and the judge are glorious to watch; the house is beautiful in the dim light of evening and the two characters are obviously attracted to something in each other they cannot name. The judge wishes he were forty years younger.
RED is a film about connections between people, about the ways in which people meet and interact with others, sometimes not even being aware of these connections. A young lawyer, about to take his final exams, lives across the street from Valentine, but they have never met. Like the judge, he is being betrayed by his girlfriend; like the judge he will leave on a futile trip to England to try to win her back. If the judge were forty years younger, perhaps he would be this young lawyer.
To emphasize this theme of connection between people, telephones and red cars feature strongly and symbolically. The film opens with a phone call to America, and the camera follows the trans-atlantic cable to suggest a world of visible and invisible threads joining people. Other references weave in and out of the film and connect it to other of Kieslowski's films: the photo of Valentine that adorns the confectionery poster catches her in exactly the same pose as a final shot of her on television; the young lawyer drops his books in the street on the day before his exams (the judge had dropped his books in the opera the night before his exams; the two Veroniques in THE DOUBLE LIFE had dropped documents in the street to suggest their connection); and so on and so on.
RED is a marvel to watch, both for its visual beauty and for the subtle and convincing development of the characters. If it has to be Kieslowski's swan song, then it is a good choice.
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