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Summary: The great european trilogy three great stories.
Review: Thes movies are based on the three colors of the french flag and center around france, but journey all over Europe.Blue is my favorite film, it is a tale of loss and over coming loss. Juliet Binenois(SP) plays a character who after losing her husband and daughter tries to give up on living, not suicide but isolation from her past. The music and the use of the color blue are magical. As Julie tries to isolate her self she still can't avoid human contact, and in the end she can not escape who and what she is. This a movie of realizing that life must continue after loss and that is a sin against ones self to denign what is great inside ones self. White is a tale of revenge agaist an man who loves his wife and who was loved by his wife until his impotence destroys the marriage. The man knows that if he can have his wife leave france and go to his native poland than impotence will turn to ... lust and love. This is about how every man wants and how in desperation will do anything to love the one woman he desires most among others. This is the most comic of the trilogy and the vengence theme which I will not give away is comic as the need for vengeance and love often is. The third tale is about the longing for life at any age and how we all find our true love when we don't expect it. The main character a young woman share two sides of simlar past 50 years appart. The color red is of course the color of the happiness and the hardship of love. This is the directors last movie before his death, This was a labor of love and all of these movies are jems of particular color and refinement.
Rating:
Summary: Great, better, best.
Review: No one who loves movies, cinamatography, or fine acting should go without these three movies, particularly the DVD where the music is noticably improved over the old VHS, and the commentary included for the films bring a greater appreciation for the finer details of each movie to greater clarity.
These movies are greatly sad, cheering, frightening, heartwarming, and above all inspirering. The acting is truly great. Juliette Binoche demonstrates her best performance in Blue, greater even then her Oscar winning performance in "The English Patient." Irene Jacobs' character and performance intrigue and captivate, and compliment Jean-Louis Trintignant's solid presentation of a man reborn through her caring.
The three movies taken together remind us that freedom from pain, true equality, and the deepest fraterity of humanity is accomplished through compassion. The three movies together remind us what great filmwork can acheive at its' best: a moving, believable and sympathic vision of the spiritual in the mundane.
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Summary: Next: Double Life of Veronique on DVD, please!
Review: Two of the films in this trilogy are magnificent: Blue and Red. Some critics prefer White, but I find it a hard film to like or respond to. In any case, buy the trilogy and come to your own conclusions. You won't be sorry -- if you like visually fascinating, emotionally fulfilling foreign films. My very favorite Kiezlowski film is Double Life of Veronique, which has a haunting, dreamlike quality all its own. Let's hope it's soon to follow on DVD!
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Summary: The Trilogy DVD set from Miramax
Review: The late great Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski cleverly "adapted" the three French ideals -- liberty, equality, fraternity -- into three thought-provoking modern-day dramas about people who cope with personal losses and tragedies. In BLUE, the first of the trilogy, a widow tries to set herself free (and gain liberty) from her emotional baggages. The second film, WHITE, is about a jilted man's outrageous plot to get even (thus, equality) with his ex-wife. The last film, RED, which is also Kieslowski's final film before he died in 1996, is about a lonely old man who is embittered by the memories of his youth and finds accidental companionship (fraternity) with a young model. All three films are understated in their tone, economical in their dialogs, elliptical in their editing and plotting (there are some mind-boggling flashbacks and flash forwards in WHITE), and haunting in their atmosphere. The references to the three French ideals are actually quite tenuous, and in fact more and more so as the trilogy progresses. BLUE is the only one that deals with the ideal of "freedom" (albeit emotional freedom) in a concrete way, inviting us to ponder its meanings and its attainability. WHITE treats the concept of "equality" in a rather subversive and satiric way, and it clearly wants us to rethink its meanings rather than accepting it at face value. And RED has to do with "fraternity" only circumstantially, and has more to do with the issue of destiny, and how our past is linked to our present. The three films are set not just in France, but also in Poland and Switzerland, and WHITE has primarily Polish dialogs. Hence, a sort of universality is intended. The three films are also linked in various ways. All three films involve an unfaithful lover who dies, in one way or another. All three films involve a chance encounter between the distressed protagonist and a sympathetic observer -- the widow and the mistress in BLUE, Karol and Mikolaj in WHITE, the retired judge and the model in RED. Both BLUE and WHITE are about people who move to new surroundings to escape from his or her troubled pasts. And RED, ironically, is about someone who never leaves his home in order to wallow in his self-pity. Kieslowski had done this sort of thing before. In 1988, he "adapted" the Ten Commandments into ten one-hour, modern-day dramas, collectively titled DECALOGUE, that make us rethink the meanings of the commandments. In the segment for "Thou Shalt Not Steal," for instance, we witness the kidnapping (the theft) of a child from her adopted parents by her natural mother, who thinks she has a right to her custody. Thus, it turns clear-cut moral ideals into real-world dramas that have no clear-cut solutions or judgments. Miramax released long-awaited Region-1 DVDs for the Three Colors trilogy, and they all have superb video transfers and rewarding extra material. Kieslowski expert Annette Insdorf provides excellent running commentaries for all three films. She analyzes the visual, aural, and editorial techniques, the thematic significance, as well as how the final films deviate from their original screenplays. She points out that Kieslowski films often deal with abstract concepts, such as fate, death, and grief, in very concrete ways. She makes an observant remark about the apparent twist of fate in the opening of BLUE: if the hitchhiker were picked up by the family, the ensuing tragedy might not occur. She points out that the dream-like wedding scene in WHITE, which many assume is a flashback, could also be a flash forward (a very interesting, and plausible, notion). She offers her interpretations to the many symbolisms in the films, such as the frequent fades to black in BLUE, the recurring shot of a stooped old person at a garbage bin, the significance of the concerto music in BLUE, the tango theme in WHITE, and the bolero score in RED. She also explains the intentionally cryptic endings of WHITE and RED. Each disc comes with several featurettes that comprise about 100 minutes of interviews and commentaries by the cast and crew, Insdorf, film critic Geoff Andrew, and film director Agnieszka Holland. The BLUE and WHITE discs also contain some early short films by Kieslowski: CONCERT OF WISHES, THE TROLLEY, THE FACE, THE OFFICE. All three discs contain a fascinating segment called "Kieslowski's Cinema Lesson," in which the director explains his intentions in one particular scene. The WHITE and RED discs contain behind-the-scenes footage of Kieslowski giving directions on the set. For Kieslowski fans, perhaps the most poignant clip in these supplements is that of Kieslowski announcing his retirement at the '94 Cannes festival, included on the RED disc.
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Summary: Simply astonishing
Review: Here are three films that you can watch again and again, and each time you will see something different, gain a fresh insight, or experience a new sense of wonder. Technically brilliant and wonderfully acted. After such a long wait for these DVDs, I was very impressed by the care and attention that Miramax put into this collection. The extras aren't leftovers from the production; they add to each film. Kieslowski's cinema lessons show a master at work and his intense obsession with detail. Hopefully the wait for The Double Life of Veronique on DVD will also be rewarded.
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Summary: THREE GREAT films for $30!?
Review: These films are classics. Challenging enough to withstand multiple viewings and still bring out new insights. But I'll leave the movie reviews up to others. As for the DVD's: They ROCK! THIS is what a DVD should have- EACH film has extras- audio commentary, discussions about K.K.'s works and where these films relate to them (by people involved and who knew him), interviews with the MAIN actors for two films (Binoche, Jacob) and the not-so-main for White (Delpi- but she's prettier than the guy who played Karol Karol), Behind the scenes stuff, they are just PACKED! The prints are BETTER than I saw in theaters when I first saw the films- the clarity is top notch, and the sound is sparkling, widescreen versions. EVERYTHING, in a word, was done RIGHT with these releases. Loving my copies!
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Summary: The MOST essential of the essential
Review: Kieslowski is a master of the camera; timing every instant, pacing every movement to perfection. It is necessary to watch these films over and over again to understand the painstaking efforts that went into creating such beautiful images, images that express in a moment what entire features cannot hope to equal. I can't even look at the box without being moved from memories of each film. Great admiration should be evoked from the very first shots of "Blue". That is it should be apparent on the first viewing the love and respect Kieslowski has for his chosen medium. I believe it is through his earlier documentary work that he achieves this respect. This love resonates in the instants that make up the films, through the emotions of the often fragile, though resilient characters that fill the trilogy. I should point out that Kieslowski is my favorite director, I own many of his films including several versions of the "Three Colors", though I do not believe it is through bias that I write, rather through intense study and appreciation. These films, as a trilogy represent the pinnacle of great film making, and separately they retain the qualities of great films. I do believe, however, to get the full experience it is necessary to watch these films as a trilogy, in order: "Blue", "White", "Red", and perhaps a supplemental screening of "The Double Life of Veronique" will fit nicely, for the more inspired viewer. For the fiercely determined viewer I urge you to get your hands on as many of his films (and soundtracks, core to the experience of his films especially "Blue" and "Red") as you can, starting with "The Decologue" and going from there, but then again, if you're like me, you probably have already done so.
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Summary: Stunning
Review: Kieslowski is quite simply one of the greatest directors of the 20th century. His relatively small body of work should not be held against him as everything he has done is absolutely brilliant. Blue is a dark somewhat depressing tale that is a bit more cerebral than its companions in the trilogy. Nevertheless it is a beautiful piece of work. White is a touching story of how lives can change and how tradgedy can turn to comedy in an instant. As much as I like White. Red is the best for me. With Red Kieslowski achieves a humanist tone I only see in Kurosawa's work. The visual technique and the way Kieslowski weaves his stories in Red is something many western filmmakers will never hope to duplicate. I try to get everyone I know to see all these movies and if they only see one, I try to get the to see Red. Its the first one of the series that I saw and it is still my favorite.
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Summary: Three little gems
Review: "Red," "White," and "Blue" is a trilogy of French films made by Polish-born filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, widely considered to be the one of the greatest European directors of the late 20th century. Each film follows emotionally damaged characters in modern French society, as they try to deal with their own unique angst. The films are presented in such an honest, gritty manner that they nearly create the appearance of a documentary, as we the viewers get the impression that we are somehow intruding on their lives. We get a voyeur's glimpse into their daily activities and experience with them their joy, excitement and most often, pain. These movies have the traditional European feel. They are simple little tales that play out in an unrushed narrative. Sadly, the only films like this we can see in America are found in the "foreign" section of our local video store. An interesting note about this collection is that each film features beautiful actresses who have subsequently found moderate success in Hollywood (Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy and Irene Jacob). Of the three, I prefer "White," but most critics claim "Red" is the best. Fans of European dramas will love this collection, and anyone with a desire to begin exploring foreign cinema could make no better selection for their first title.
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Summary: finally!
Review: I do hope that the quality is as good as the VHS. These are wonderful thoughtful films. The details and cinimatography are absolutely beautiful.
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