It’s universally acknowledged as a great film ending, but there are some strange elements in the conclusion to “Three Colours: Red” that need to be addressed upfront before I describe it.

The first is that it works even if you haven’t seen any Kieslowski film before — including the first two movies in the “Three Colours” trilogy, but the more Kieslowski you have seen, the more powerful the ending is. That’s because Kieslowski, through so many separate endings in The Dekalog and in every previous film, studiously avoided tidy conclusions.

Nearly every episode of The Dekalog ends with some element of mystery. The characters have gone through a dramatic experience, but we aren’t sure what’s ahead for them. They are living with a new perspective, but there’s no guarantee it will work out any better for them than the one they’ve just left behind.

“The Double Life of Veronique” ends with the puzzling image of Veronique hugging a tree. “Blue” gives us Julie finally in tears. “White” has the lovers reunited, in a sense, but in an impossibly distant circumstance.

Having seen all this, the Kieslowski viewer is expecting something similar in this film’s wrap up, even if the movie is hinting at secret forces pushing characters toward something. There are ominous storms in Geneva … never mind that the weather in Switzerland has nothing to do with the weather in the English Channel. It is cinematic weather we are concerned with here.

But one last thing before I begin the recap of it all … the ending that approaches, that feels purely joyous, happens amid a terrible human tragedy, the scale of which matches well known catastrophes like the Titanic and 9-11. It’s kind of shocking to consider that movie goers so easily gloss over this, that the movie is talking about an event that kills thousands of people. And yet we feel joy about the survivors.

I would assume that this the same feeling family members of aircrash survivors might feel. At first there’s the deep sorrow of expected loss … but then a transcendent joy about something that worked out.

But back to the story. The final scene ended with Joseph and Valentine putting their hands up together on the driver’s side window of the car, touching hands across glass. It’s a nice way for Kieslowski to give us one last motif of hands that have been so important throughout his moral universe stories.

And speaking of motifs, as Valentine looks wistful and the car pulls away, she focuses her attention on an old woman trying to put a bottle into a European recycling bin. Yes, one more old woman struggling with the recycling container. But as if to prove that Valentine is the perfectly evolved Kieslowski moral human he wishes to populate the earth, the filmmakers have her walk over and help the woman complete the task.

Now we see Valentine on the passageway to the ferry boat … but the camera lets her walk past and we see, only a few strides away, Auguste getting on the same boat, carrying his dog. Never mind that the UK quarantined dogs for 30 days at that time upon arrival, Kieslowski wants us to pay attention to details unless he doesn’t want us to do so. They both need directions for where to go and are directed to different decks.

We see the boat leave the dock. Kieslowski gives us a partial glimpse of the boat through a slat in the dock runway. It has no significance, he probably just liked the way it looked. Next, the scene cuts to the huge advertisement of Valentine … it is coming down, I suppose the ad campaign is over. We notice a heavy storm coming in as the workers take it down, adding some dramatic wind effects.

Kieslowski shows us dark skies. A door flies open in Joseph’s house, knocking over a drink perched on the billiards table. He really needs to hire a maid to clean that room up, it’s a complete mess. We see a lovely shot of rain over Vienna. Then we see Joseph with his puppies, being especially affectionate with one dog that jumps out of its bed to approach him. He puts a collar on that dog — a visual clue that maybe he’s selected that one to be Valentine’s new dog.

Now it’s morning, a beautiful clear day after the storm has passed. Joseph gets the newspaper out at the front gate. The headline: Tragedy on the English Channel. Seven Survive.

Joseph goes inside and turns on the TV — Valentine’s brother must have dropped it off. The newscast says that the weather on the English Channel is making recovery efforts difficult. There are many overturned fishing boats and one crashed yacht with two passengers (we are meant to assume this was Auguste’s ex girlfriend and new man.)

The report says that the cause of the ferry crash is unknown, there were 1435 passengers onboard. While many passengers are still missing, seven were retrieved unharmed.

The first, Julie Vignon, the widow of a French composer who died last year.

The second is Steven Killian, a bartender on the ferry. (He has no previous connection to any Kieslowski story … perhaps this was an inside joke.)

The third is Polish businessman Karol Karol. And also Dominique Vidal, a French citizen. (This, of course, is very hard to explain and Kieslowski doesn’t try. Not only did Dominique get out of prison, but Karol somehow retrieved his identity after previously having himself be declared dead.)

Frenchman Olivier Benoit is announced as another.

The movie then cuts to Joseph and builds tension as the TV broadcast says that there are two Swiss survivors.

And then we see them together for the first time in the film. August Bruner, a judge … and also a young model and student (we were never previously told she is a student) Valentine Dussaut. The film ends on a close up of Valentine.

And so concludes Kieslowski’s moral universe. Fate has tied the three stories together. Everything’s planned, nothing makes sense.