• The warmest film of Kieslowski’s trilogy and his entire career—both emotionally (the color means fraternity here and that is certainly a match) and visually.
  • It is a brilliant film on its own, but also a fitting finale (with a short coda attached) to the trilogy— Kieslowski going Masterpiece, Must-See, and Masterpiece with the trilogy to end his career (and that is after Dekalog and Veronique). He would pass away in 1996 (at age 54)- but he had announced his retirement with this project and film.

the color means fraternity here and that is certainly a match

  • Opens with a color rush of red objects placed (we roll past some red stamps- nothing overlooked in the mise-en-scene for Kieslowski) to some red telephone wire. We wouldn’t know it now, but the phone being tapped is central to the film’s narrative

Opens with a color rush of red objects placed (we roll past some red stamps- nothing overlooked in the mise-en-scene for Kieslowski) to some red telephone wire. We wouldn’t know it now, but the phone being tapped is central to the film’s narrative

  • Two strangers live a few apartments away near the red Café Chez Joseph – fate (or God) – is about to intervene. Kieslowski will float the camera between their apartments in a nice tracking shot and do it again as the camera rolls from her bowling lane (the whole bowling alley awash in red) to his lane

Two strangers live a few apartments away near the red Café Chez Joseph – fate (or God)- is about to intervene. Kieslowski will float the camera between their apartments in a nice tracking shot and do it again as the camera rolls from her bowling lane (the whole bowling alley awash in red) to his lane

  • Bubblegum modeling shot at 5 minutes

Bubblegum modeling shot at 5 minutes

  • The frames are just inundated in reds—the Marlboro cigarettes, red jeep, red bowling ball- stop signs, costume work, lighting on the streets

The frames are just inundated in reds—the Marlboro cigarettes, red jeep, red bowling ball…

…costume work, lighting on the streets

  • The visual décor design and use of color ranks among cinema’s best

The visual décor design and use of color ranks among cinema’s best

  • Irene Jacob plays Valentine (yep, red)- a genuinely good person (shown by Kieslowski as the only three in the trilogy to help the woman with the glass in the recycling)- she helps a dog and that leads her to a retired judge Jean-Louis Trintignant. He’s cynical. They literally argue and she says “people are good” and he says “no they’re not”. JLT may be sort of a sage or god-like character here as he tells her about her future and knows of the upcoming trip. They form a beautiful platonic friendship.
  • A meditation on fate and interconnectedness- falling books opening to certain pages and passages

A meditation on fate and interconnectedness- falling books opening to certain pages and passages

  • The weather forecast is wrong (and that has a biblical meaning)—and that mirrors Dekalog chapter one with the ice—the survivors are the central characters from our trilogy
  • A masterpiece- along with the other films in the trilogy one of the towering accomplishments in cinema in the 1990s.