Three Colors Trilogy:
Blue, White, & Red (1993-1994)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Starring Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy, Irène Jacob, Frederique Feder and Jean-Louis Trintignant

Features:

• "Reflections on Bleu," "A Look at Blanc," and "Insights into Trois Coleurs - Rouge" featurettes
• Audio commentaries with film scholar Annette Insdorf (in English)
• Selected scene commentaries with Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy, and Irene Jacob
• Discussions on director Kieslowski's early years and later years
• Conversations with Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy, and Irene Jacob on Krzysztof Kieslowski
• Krzysztof Kieslowski's cinema lessons
• Producer Marin Karmitz interview with selected scenes and commentary
• Editor Jacques Witta interview and commentary
• Kieslowski student films: "Concert of Wishes," "Trolley," "The Face," and "The Office"
• Krzysztof Kieslowski filmography
• A discussion on working with Krzysztof Kieslowski
• Behind the scenes of "Trois Coleurs" with director Krzysztof Kieslowski
• RED at the Cannes Film Festival, 1994

Released by: Buena Vista Home Video
Region: 1
Rating: R
Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Own them all.

Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy of films, created for the French bicentennial, easily stands as one of the masterworks of French cinema, and serves to demonstrate simultaneously not only the wide diversity of situations found in the human condition, but also the subtle talent and incredible range of Kieslowski's cinematic genius. Each film stands perfectly well on its own, but it really is when the three are taken as a set that the full weight of what Kiewlowski and his writing partner Krzysztof Piesiewicz have accomplished becomes clear.

Blue, the color representing Liberty, gives us Juliette Binoche in the lead role as Julie, a woman recovering from devastating tragedy. Her husband and child die in an auto accident, and she finds herself starting life all over again, but with the added baggage of this disaster on her back. The concept of liberty as a thing equal parts terrifying and exhilirating is played very well here by the talented Binoche, and Kieslowski's story puts an unexpected twist on the whole notion of liberty as an ideal to be pursued. Julie's attempts to shelter herself from the world in order to gain freedom from this unhappy past serves to illustrate the importance of the other colors yet to be discussed, most notably fraternity. Matters are further complicated as details of her husband's infidelity haunt Julie in her attempts to leave the past behind.

White gives a welcome respite to the fairly dark and melancholy tone of Blue. A dark comedy, this installment is almost entirely focused on a bizarre revenge fantasy that Karol Karol (Zamachowski) wants to perpetrate on his ex-wife Dominique (Delpy). This perhaps misguided sense of justice that Karol pursues comes as close to embodying the idea of Equality as anything in a postmodern ironic comedy really can, I suppose. As far as the symbolic color correspondence, this film seems the weakest of the three, and Delpy isn't used to her full potential. Zamachowski's performance is outstanding, though, which is critical in getting the audience sympathetic with the bumbling and (allegedly) impotent Karol before the whole revenge scheme unfolds.

Red is perhaps the most "complete" of the three films, as it fuses the avant-garde tendencies of Blue with the more traditional cinema narrative structures of White. The story here follows Valentine (Jacobs), a struggling model, as she meets and befriends a judge (Trintignant) who has some...unusual habits involving eavesdropping on his neighbors. While not really a straightforward comedy, the tweak being applied to the French motto's call for Fraternité is pretty amusing in the abstract. The scenes between Jacobs and Trintignant are a wonder to behold, beautifully shot and astoundingly well-acted.

Taken as a whole, Kieslowski's trilogy is epic, painting a picture of post-Cold War life in Europe that runs the gamut from joy to misery to the simply mundane that never fails to be breathtaking. If you've got the fortitude (and tissues) to watch the whole trilogy in one sitting, it will be a marathon film festival you're not likely to forget any time soon. The acting, cinematography, direction, and writing are all top notch. The only qualms I have about the set as a whole is the tendency to cast a slew of excellent actors, and then tight-focus on one character and give the others much too little screen time. Red is really the only film that avoids this character-driven "tunnel vision," though it only manages to allow for two solid performances.

The DVD set here is amazing. Loaded with tons and tons of extras, including a quartet of Kieslowski's student films, making-of featurettes, conversations and commentaries with the three leading women, and full-length commentaries by a film scholar, there's not likely to be much more one could add to these discs. There are interviews with the editor regarding each film, interviews with the cast and crew about working with Kieslowski, and a few promotional sorts of pieces, too, including a bit on Red's appearance at Cannes. Few foreign films are given any sort of decent treatment by anybody shy of Criterion, but this trio steps up to the plate and puts one out of the park. If you're a fan of French cinema (or film in general), you owe this collection to yourself.