Three Colors: Red (1994)

Three Colors: Red (French: Trois Couleurs: Rouge, Polish: Trzy kolory. Czerwony) is a 1994 French-Polish–Swiss co-production, co-written, produced, and directed by Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski. It is the final film of The Three Colors Trilogy, which examines the French Revolutionary ideals; it is preceded by Blue and White. Kieślowski had announced that this would be his final film, which proved true with the director's sudden death in 1996. Red is about fraternity, which it examines by showing characters whose lives gradually become closely interconnected, with bonds forming between two characters who appear to have little in common.

Valentine is a young model living in Geneva. Because of a dog she ran over, she meets a retired judge who spies his neighbours' phone calls, not for money but to feed his cynicism. The film is the story of relationships between some human beings, Valentine and the judge, but also other people who may not be aware of the relationship they have with Valentine or/and the old judge. Redemption, forgiveness and compassion…

As in the previous two films, a single color dominates: numerous objects in the film are bright red, including the huge advertising banner featuring Valentine's facial profile. Several images recur throughout the film. Telephone communication is important throughout, and so is broken glass (when Kern reveals his eavesdropping, his neighbors throw rocks through his windows, and the end of the film Kern watches Valentine and Auguste on the news while watching the outside world through broken glass). Also, when Valentine is bowling, the camera moves down the line to where there sits a broken glass next to a packet of Marlboro cigarettes, which is the brand that Auguste smokes.

A symbol common to the three films is that of an underlying link or thing that keeps the protagonist linked to his/her past, in the case of Red the judge never closes his doors or gates, despite the fact that he wants to be cut off from everything; also relevant are fountain pens, in a seemingly unconnected scene August gets a fountain pen as a gift and he wonders how many destinies he will change with the pen, later in the film Judge Kern is about to write letters to his neighbours denouncing himself as a spy and his pen stops working and he is forced to write his letters with a pencil. In the case of Three Colors: White the items that link Karol to his past are a 2 Fr. coin and a plaster bust that he stole from an antique store in Paris. In the case of Blue it is a lamp of blue beads and a recurring image of people falling.

Another recurring image related to the spirit of the film is that of elderly people recycling bottles; in the case of Red an old woman cannot reach the hole of the container and Valentine helps her (in the spirit of solidarity underlying the film). In Three Colors: Blue, an old woman in Paris is recycling bottles and Julie does not notice her (in the spirit of freedom); in Three Colors: White, an old man also in Paris is trying to recycle a bottle but cannot reach the container and Karol looks at him with a sinister grin on his face (in the spirit of equality).

This film also depicts topics of Law Philosophy and the manner in which man acts in society, the relationship between the law, ethics and socially acceptable behaviour and how not all of them coincide, particularly in the reflections by Judge Kern and some symbols related to Auguste.

The film has been interpreted as an anti-romance, in parallel with Blue being an anti-tragedy and White being an anti-comedy.

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