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Benoit Regent
Florence Pernel
Juliette Binoche
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Genre
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Fiction
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Media
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DVD Box Set
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Studio | Artificial Eye | ||
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Reviewer
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Gareth
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Description
Krzysztof Kieslowski's 'Three Colours' trilogy, which explores the French Revolutionary ideals of Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood, is a landmark of world cinema.
THREE COLOURS BLUE Julie (Binoche) loses her composer husband and their child in a car crash and, though devastated, she tries to make a new start, away from her country house and a would-be lover. But she is haunted by the music that still surrounds her and by some unpleasant facts that she uncovers about her husband's life. Slowly Julie learns to live again, as music and the gift to create it prove to be a healing force.
THREE COLOURS WHITE Down-and-out Polish immigrant Karol Karol is desperate to get out of France. He's obsessed with his French soon-to-be ex-wife (Before Sunrise's Julie Delpy), his French bank account is frozen, and he's fed up with the inequality of it all. Penniless, he convinces a fellow Pole to smuggle him home in a suitcase--which then gets stolen from the airport. The unhappy thieves beat him and dump him in a snowy rock pit. Things can only get better, right? The story evolves into a wickedly funny anti-romance, an inverse Romeo and Juliet. Because it's in two foreign languages, the dialogue can be occasionally hard to follow, but some of the most genuinely funny and touching moments need no verbal explanation.
THREE COLOURS RED The final section of the late Krzysztof Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colours trilogy (preceded by Blue and White) is the least likely of the three to stand alone, and indeed benefits from a little familiarity with the first two parts. Nevertheless, it's a strong, unique piece that reflects upon the ubiquity of images in the modern world and the parallel subjugation of meaningful communication. Irène Jacob plays a fashion model whose lovely face is hugely enlarged on a red banner no one in Geneva, Switzerland, can possibly miss seeing. Striking up a relationship with an embittered former judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who secretly scans his neighbours' conversations through electronic surveillance, Jacob's character becomes an aural witness to the secret lives of those we think we know. Kieslowski cleverly wraps up the trilogy with a device that brings together the principals of all three films.
Review
For me, these are three of the most influential films ever made and I realised, upon watching them, that there was more to cinema than the Hollywood system of big budget, no brainers. There was another universe out there, for me, of the most wonderful cinema; a cinema of expression and subtlety where character and story ruled. If ever there was a case for cinema as an art-form in its own right then the Three Colours Trilogy would definitely count. There is something wonderful and spellbinding about these films - they have a depth of humanity and feeling that I have never come across before. What shook me about these masterpieces is that they are about people - the frailties of the human condition; about actions and consequences; reactions and repercussions.
In Three Colours Blue Juliette Binoche survives a car crash that kills her husband and daughter and has to live with the guilt. She is left with the realisation that she has been the prisoner of her own life and once the barriers have been taken down she is left with nothing but half truths, and actually tries to distance herself from it all rather than accept responsibility for who she is.
Three Colours White, the black sheep of the family, is actually a comedy -an anti-Rom-Com, if you like. In it, the protagonist Karol Karol is humiliated by his wife Dominique before being divorced and discarded. With no money to his name he tries returning to his homeland, Poland, in the most bizarre way possible before plotting his own unique brand of revenge on his ex. Again, this is a subtle film and covers ground that you wouldn't expect in a comedy. It's a lot darker and deeper than any of the Hollywood (or even the British) romantic comedies and the relationship between Karol and his wife is complex and intriguing.
Three Colours Red is my own personal favourite for it confirms my view that even the smallest gesture can create ripples that may affect the entire course of your life and others. This film works on so many different levels, and is so subtly layered that the final dénouement is open to interpretation and exquisite in it's simplicity. "Red" follows Valentine who is on the way home following a fashion shoot when she accidentally runs over a dog. Upon taking the dog to it's owner - a cynical, and embittered Joseph Kern; a retired judge- she becomes embroiled in his life. Initially repulsed by his activities (he eavesdrops on peoples conversations using state of the art surveillance methods and wiretaps) she is drawn into a friendship with him when he turns himself into the authorities. The two of them realise that their lives intertwine far more than they initially thought.
One of the most striking aspects of these films is the cinematography. Each film has a predominance of its title colour and is used to convey specific emotional states and succeeds in emphasising the social, cultural and, in some cases, the psychological conditions of the characters. At the start of each film we travel through tunnels of one sort or another (the most striking is in three colours red where we are taken down the fibre-optic telephone lines, across oceans), which, for me, symbolises the journeys that the characters must take. Tunnels are symbolic of a rite of passage; a state of transition. One that we all must make, and all the characters undergo their own rites of passage.
These are moving films, worthy of full attention and will take the very breath from your body. To me they are beautiful in every way, cinematic benchmarks of the highest order. If you want to see what cinema is truly capable of then watch these films.
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