By Raymond Benson
It’s
one of the best trilogies ever put on celluloid. Period.
This
trio of films by the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski can be
ambiguously described by these adjectives: insightful, enigmatic, mysterious, melancholic, personal, beautiful,
ironic, allegorical, and colorful.
Art
house cinema movie-goers are most likely well familiar with these works,
initially released in 1993 and 1994. Kieslowski was a preeminent filmmaker working since the 1970s behind the
Iron Curtain and was relatively unknown to the West until the fall of the
Soviet Union in 1989. Then, a flood of
previous entries in his oeuvre amazed
and challenged a new worldwide audience. His ten-part Polish television series from 1988, The Decalogue, became one of the most celebrated events in media. Now
free to work where he wished and make what he wanted, Kieslowski moved to
France and received funding for more ambitious projects such as The Double Life of Veronique (1991), a
co-French and co-Polish production. This
same configuration resulted in his masterpiece, the Three Colors trilogy of Blue,
White, and Red. The accolades and awards
were promptly showered on these unique films, and they were well deserved.
Kieslowski
is a filmmaker who likes to take a general concept, say, the “Ten
Commandments,†and then turn it upside down and examine it from a modern perspective. The
Decalogue did this by presenting the theme of each commandment re-imagined
in a modern context full of double meanings, coincidences, and irony. With his co-screenwriter, Krzysztof
Piesiewicz, he did the same in Three
Colors, which loosely examines the tenets behind the colors of the French
national flag—liberty, equality, and fraternity.
Blue is about
liberty. Or maybe it’s really about
being trapped. Or perhaps it’s about
rebirth. Kieslowski wants his audiences
to interpret the films as they wish. In Blue, a woman in France (Juliette
Binoche) loses her famous composer husband and their daughter in a car
crash. At first she is devastated. She wants to completely abandon and forget
her former life and have no reminders of it. And then, slowly, she comes to accept her fate and reinvent
herself. Kieslowski called Blue an “anti-tragedy.â€
White is about
equality. Or maybe it’s really about
inequality. Or perhaps it’s about
revenge and come-uppance. A Polish man
(Zbigniew Zamachowski) is married to a French woman (Julie Delpy) but she
divorces him because he is impotent. She
further humiliates him by taking his money, his livelihood, his passport, and
leaving him homeless. He connives to get
back to Poland, where he slowly works his way out of his predicament, becomes a
man of means, and then plans his revenge on his ex-wife. Kieslowski called White an “anti-comedy.â€
Red is about
fraternity. Or maybe it’s really about loneliness. Or perhaps it’s about fate and destiny and
how coincidences can clash and result in something meaningful. A gorgeous fashion model in Geneva (Irene
Jacob) is lonely and can’t seem to connect with her boyfriend, who lives in
London. Across the street lives a young
lawyer who has fallen in love with a woman who soon leaves him for another
man. It would seem these two would be
perfect for each other, but they always miss each other when there’s a chance
they could meet. Across town is an
embittered misanthrope of a judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who likes to spy on
his neighbors. A series of fluke
occurrences bring the model and the judge together and they become wary
friends. Eventually, everything becomes
correlated and all three films are
resolved in Red’s startling
finale. Kieslowski called Red an “anti-romance.â€
This
is heady and wonderful stuff. If you
like the ambiguity of Stanley Kubrick, then you’ll like Kieslowski. In fact, Kubrick was a huge fan of Kieslowski
and even wrote the introduction to the UK publication of The Decalogue scripts.
Besides
the terrific screenplays, direction, and acting in these three pictures, two
other elements are tremendously vital to their success—the cinematography and
the music scores. Each film was shot by
a different DP, and each artist infuses the story with the color of its title
in sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant ways. They are all gorgeous to look at, especially in Criterion’s new
high-definition digital restorations. The 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks showcase Zbigniew Preisner music,
which can arguably be called some of the best film scores ever written. They are sadly beautiful, often playful, and
most of all exhilarating.
Criterion’s
lavish box set contains all three films plus tons of extras. New features examine the symbolism, meaning,
and various interpretations of each picture. New video interviews with many of the cast members are revealing and
candid. A documentary made in Poland in
1995, Krzysztof Kieslowski: I’m So-So,
presents the man himself discussing his life and work. Several of his student films are
included.
Blue, White, and Red are films which demand to be viewed more than once. With each visit, you will see things you
didn’t catch the first time. You’ll
discover connections that were oblique before. And you’ll find yourself falling in love with Three Colors, over and over again.
Highly
and enthusiastically recommended.
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