Three Colours: Red

This is the first part of the film where we start to see Valentine influencing others. It begins with the judge at his desk. He pulls out a large stack of papers and gets his fountain pen, which appears to be a Mont Blanc. He tries to begin a letter,

What is the primary motivation for the good things we do? This is not a question examined often in films. More often, movies examine people at their worst and raise questions about why they do terrible things. The judge at this point in the film wants to test Valentine on

I have been taking a “details matter” approach to “Three Colours: Red” so far, even more than I do normally. This is because I’m following Kieslowski’s lead. By the time he arrived at this movie, he was aware of his audience and understood that his fans enjoyed picking

Kryzszstof Kieslowski said in an interview that Rita entering the church is the first important plot point of the film. Valentine follow her into the Catholic Church where a mass is underway. She rushes right into the middle of it, then apologizes and says she’s looking for her dog.

I have not dwelled on Kieslowski’s anchor themes very much throughout my series, in part because I find it more interesting the ways that he blurs the concepts or tries to subvert them. In the Dekalog, for example, there are often numerous commandments in play at a time and

Red dominated the first segment of the film, but now it takes on a more subtle character. There are red elements in nearly every shot now, but they are not central, they stand off to the side, hinting at possible meaning. So too there are many portents in this part