Trois Couleurs - ROUGE

Continuing with the Kieslowski's Trilogy, let me now write about the third part 'RED'. (I could not get the second part -White).

RED(France/1994) : The concluding part 'RED' stands for 'Fraternity' on French flag.Red is the color of love and blood - life and death. This is the most mysterious and complex movie in the trilogy. Valentine (Irene Jacob) is a model whose new advertisement is going to be displayed on the main billboard in the crossroad in Geneva. One day while returning from her work Valentine accidentally knocks down a German shephard with her car. She takes the dog and track down the owner of the dog. The dog belongs to a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is living in seclusion and spends his time tapping the phone conversation of his neighbours using his shortwave radio. A strange kind of bonding develops between Valentine and the judge. There is also a parallel story of a recently graduated law student Auguste (Jean-Pierre Lorit) and his girlfriend. In the later part of the movie we come to know that the young judge, Auguste's experiences are similar to the one that happened to the retired judge 30 years ago. Kieslowski sets up a visual connection between them from the very beginning of the film.
The performance of Irene Jacob and Jean-Louis Trintignant is superb. The innocence on the face of Irene Jacob is amazing.
However, what I liked most is the conclusion. Red is a closure of sorts of the trilogy. So when we see all the six main characters from the trilogy come together in the end.
The Color Red is used very artistically, the red jeep, the red billboard,Valentine's red dress, etc.
The cinematography is by Piotr Sobocinski and his work here earned him an Oscar nomination. The background score is also superb.
It is heard that, Kieslowski was exhausted from having completed the trilogy in a staggered, accelerated time frame (at one point, he was editing Blue, shooting White, and writing Red concurrently).
Just imagine this opening shot by Kieslowski of the movie 'Red' - A hand picks up a phone and dials a number. The camera then follows the chord of the phone to the wall, then to the street, into and across the English channel, and then to another phone in Geneva. There is a simultaneous conversation going on in the background. The scene itself expresses the connection people make between them.
Watch the trilogy and the way you see and interpret colors and life will not be same again.