THREE COLORS: RED
A film review by Leo Bueno
Copyright 1995 Leo Bueno
The plot: Young model meets retired judge who enjoys snooping on other people's private telephone conversation; they become friends, sort of.
This is the story of the "relationship" between a young woman and an older man. She is a fashion model and a student; he is a disillusioned older man. She has a full life; he doesn't. She is physically attractive; he walks with a limp. She wants love; he lost love. Her lover is at the end of a telephone line; his lover is a bad memory.
No, they don't climb under the sheets, but there is more than friendship between them. Maybe this movie is nothing more than a delicate twist on WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. Can a man and a woman be just friends? Can an old person romantically love a young person? Why shouldn't an old weird guy and a naive pretty young girl love each other?
If you are expecting lucid insights into this film, forget it; I am neither smart nor sophisticated enough to understand its subtleties. This often happens to me with European and particularly French movies (which this one is, in part). Maybe it was because I did not see the other two legs of the trilogy, WHITE and BLUE, but having read other folk's reviews, I am convinced that this movie stood on its own. Go see it, even if you didn't see the other two.
I wondered out loud throughout the film, as I left the movie house, and for a couple of days thereafter: "What's the point; what's the point of this movie?" Nobody got shot, nobody got chased and almost nobody got laid. These quintessential elements of Hollywood cinema were conspicuously absent from this film; no wonder I could not figure it out. There was no great moral dilemma to resolve, no difficult choice to make, no fight to be waged. Yet, there is something appealing about this movie.
The characters seemed like people you have at some point known, or want to meet. The acting was superb. Perhaps because the actors are unfamiliar, one gets that "it doesn't look like they are acting" feeling. Yet, the plot is artificial enough for one to realize this is, after all, fiction.
One senses the ingredients for an offbeat romance are present, but it isn't clear why the director didn't throw them in the pot and light the fire. Perhaps this movie is in essence a delicate romantic cliffhanger; the characters get close to the edge, but don't take the overt plunge. You will wonder why.
.
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