Three Colours: Red begins in the UK, with an unseen young man — a man we will never meet, making a telephone call. We can see a picture of Irene Jacob on his nightstand, a black and white photo where she looks quite young, perhaps a teenager. This gives a sense of the caller knowing her for some time.

Like the other films in the series, “Red” jumps into a technological scene … we get a kaleidoscope of telephone wires, branded pairs with different color casings, what has become one of the most famous opening sequences in film. We follow the wires under the ground, across the English Channel — the movie’s first location preview — then back to European soil in France, eventually finding their way to Geneva, Switzerland, where our story will take place.

Getting now response, the caller hangs up and tries again. But as he is doing so, Kieslowski cuts to another character, another young man, this one with a dog. He pulls his books together with a strap, then puts a leash on the small black dog. It’s a dark apartment, we don’t see much red in it … only a muted leather chair comes close to the palate. He goes outside the walk the dog and we see a red compact car turn on the street and a red Jeep parked there — we will later see that the red Jeep is his car.

He walks across the street and we see the red awning of a cafe, Chez Joseph — and as the camera pans to a window above the cafe, we hear the phone ringing. We enter Valentine’s apartment through the window. It’s the first act of eavesdropping in the film, we the audience feeling like we’ve entered her home uninvited.

Valentine’s boyfriend has called again and his voice can be heard on the phone machine. There is a red book sitting open, cover up, on the table, as well as a half eaten apple. Valentine scurries to the phone and picks up. Valentine is happy to hear Michel’s voice. She eats a yoplait and tells him that she was having some yogurt for breakfast. He seems suspicious of her — asks why she missed the first call. She has to assure him that she is alone.

He tells a story of just getting back from Poland, where his car was stolen and everything was lost, including passports, which he had to go to the embassy to replace. This connects us, via atmosphere at least, with “White.” She then tells him that she felt lonely the night before and pauses dramatically. He asks what she did. She tells him that she slept with his (red) jacket all night and then pulls the jacket from the bed towards her. She says how she wishes to be with him, he tells her how that’s impossible — they then talk about the weather.

Michel asks again where she was the night before — she answers that she took his recommendation and went to see “Dead Poets Society.” As we peer out the window of her apartment, we see the young man with the dog getting back to his place.

Back to the young man, he has a picture of a ballerina in his apartment, another flash-forward in a sense, because we will soon see Valentina at a ballet class. He calls a local weather phone line, just to listen to the voice of the woman on the line. He kisses the phone — he clearly doesn’t care about the weather, but has affection for the woman who gives the forecast.

He gets into his red Jeep and drives off. Just as he passes the cafe, Valentine exists her apartment door. She buys a newspaper, then goes inside Chez Joseph. There, she puts a coin into a slot machine and pulls the handle, which comes up bell, bar, cherries. The bartender asks if she lost and Valentine cheerfully replies yes. In their personal mythology, losing at the slot machine is good luck for the day.

Now we see Valentine at work, modeling. She is blowing a bubble in front of a red flowing background. The photographer then tells her to take out the gum and stop looking so happy. He asks her to look sad and the sadder she looks, the more pleased he becomes.

Onto ballet class, where Valentine is wearing a black leotard, a red sweatshirt tied around her waist. The ballet class is draped in red — red barre, red floor. Valentine is clearly struggling. The scene then cuts to her drinking a very large bottle of water, still breathing heavily. We can see an open church door in the background, a door she will step through in a scene very shortly.

These opening shots introduce us to Valentine, a young woman who is very beautiful, hard working, and honest. But it also introduces us to a young man and we aren’t sure why. Who is he and how is he connected to her story? Kieslowski will let this mystery build and play out for a very long time.