Only the first and last films in the
'Trois Couleurs/Three Colours' trilogy are in the 1001 Movies book but I might as well watch the whole shebang...
Three Colours: Blue (1993)
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Country: France, Poland, Switzerland
Length: 94 minutes
Type: Drama
Now I can finally say I've seen that there film what is referenced in a February 1999 scene from the TV comedy
'The League of Gentlemen' where two gore-hounds sit down in the wrong cinema playing 'Three Colours: Blue' and ask an annoyed cineaste
"Is this 'Candyman 2: Farewell To The Flesh?'" . That's my main reason for wanting to see this. But seriously...
An important element of the plot to
'Blue' is a recently bereaved composer's potentially era-defining, half-finished, unpublished opus, so this film wouldn't work anything like as well if it wasn't for
Zbigniew Preisner's music. He creates something that instantly sounds like a great work by
Beethoven, or
Mozart, which we need just moments to recognise whenever it plays. As with the other films in the 'Three Colours' trilogy, the colour blue repeats in the costuming, lighting, key emotionally charged props and through characteristic things like water.
Juliette Binoche gives a brilliant portrayal of cold, closed off grief.
Three Colours: White (1994)
Critic
Roger Ebert interpreted
'White' as an "anti-comedy" and the other two films in the 'Three Colours' trilogy as an "anti-tragedy" ('Blue') and an "anti-romance" ('Red'). I think he got that bang on, 'White' features recognisable elements of a farce, or a romcom but isn't really supposed to be funny, or romantic, the main character has a
Chaplin-esque, clownish bearing but is just pathetically tragic. Beneath it's whimsical surface plot, there is an increasing undercurrent of obsession and desolation. With great sympathy (at least at first)
Zbigniew Zamachowski plays a put-upon Polish immigrant to France, divorced by his wife and finding his life in tatters on the streets.
Janusz Gajos plays a wonderful friend character, somehow full of warmth and gentle kindness but sad and depressed too. I didn't think this was noticeably weaker than the other two more acclaimed bookends to the trilogy.
Three Colours: Red (1994)
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Country: Switzerland, France, Poland
Length: 99 minutes
Type: Drama
I thought
'Red' topped the first two excellent films in the trilogy. Like the others, it's like an "anti-romance", or at least a twist and subversion of that genre. It's also like a
'Sliding Doors' parallel realities and simultaneous timelines movie (or it isn't), with a character that maybe has god-like powers over dreams, reality and the elements (or doesn't), yet it's more straight forward and grounded than that implies.
Irene Jacob plays Valentine, a beautiful young model and
Jean-Louis Trintignant plays Joseph, a curmudgeonly old retired judge, who grow close to each in a way that verges on an unrequited love affair. A kind of
"if I was 30-years younger, you'd be my soulmate" kind of dynamic. Except that their love possibly will be fulfilled in a strange way because the film also shows us the life of Auguste, a young newly appointed judge who seems to live a life eerily like that of Joseph when he was a younger man. 'Red' has an intricately constructed narrative, full of layers of meaning, visuals metaphors and possible interpretations... or it's just a beautifully acted little story about two lonely souls connecting, nothing more.