THREE COLORS: RED
A film review by Raymond Johnston
Copyright 1994 Raymond Johnston
Dir: Krysztof Kieslowski Photography: Piotr Sobocinski Starring: Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Frederique Feder, Jean-Pierre Lorit
The third of the "Three Colors" trilogy, and according to the director his final film, is a bleak and downbeat loosely structured love story. In contrast to the complex revenge plot of WHITE , RED relies heavily on parallel incidents, coincidences, premonition dreams, doppelgangers, and superstitious fate to flesh out themes of love, chance, and privacy. Irene Jacob (DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE) plays a Swiss fashion model who by chance encounters retired judge Jean-Louis Trintignant. Trintignant is a cold and bitter old man who, like the protagonist in the much inferior SLIVER, cynically eavesdrops on his neighbors and expounds on the sorry plight of the human condition. The talky encounters between them make up the main body of the film, and their conversations impact on the lives of a small group of minor characters.
Following the plan of the trilogy, this film should have been about fraternity. That theme seems to be interpreted in how people's lives are intertwined through minor events. A minor mistake that one character makes, for example, leads to somebody having grandchildren thirty-five years later. Another character adjusting a car radio sets much of the story in motion, changing the lives of several characters permanently.
Irene Jacob takes a blank sincerity to her role. Her motivation in the film is called into question by Trintignant's judge character, and her blankness leaves the answers up to the audience. She, like the audience, is repulsed and fascinated by Trintignant's callousness and voyeurism. Trintignant, one of France's leading actors, projects an almost palpable air of bitter dejection and moral decay.
What helps to unify this film is the use of red. Cinematographer Piotr Sobocinski includes it in almost every scene. It is in banners and photographs, costumes, slot machines, cars; any conceivable place. A special lighting design that required more than twice the lights of BLUE and WHITE combined also brings unity to the film.
RED provides some interesting insight on the nature of everyday encounters and chance meetings, but not without some heavy handed foreshadowing and polemic speeches. It is a challenging film that may not satisfy the fans of Kieslowski's more mainstream and humorous WHITE. It does fall well within the tradition of European post new-wave cinema, and is in some ways reminiscent of Godard's early color work.
After the screening at the New York Film Festival, director Kieslowski, through the aid of an interpreter, answered questions. Typical of European directors, he did not say much. When asked about the unifying theme of the trilogy, he said that if you find a theme there is a theme, if you don't there isn't. When asked about the three films of the trilogy being so different, he said that it was the distributor's idea to call the films a trilogy. When asked about being an artist, he said that he was merely a technician. When asked about the film's stylistics, he said that it was due to the cinematographer. When asked about cinematic influences, he said he never went to the movies anymore. He also dodged questions about the meaning of the end of the film. He did say that he was retiring from film making, and did not know what he was going to do next. Kieslowski seems full of energy for an aging man, and hopefully a few months of retirement will make him want to return to work.
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews