12 September 2023

Krzysztof Kieślowski's "Three Colours" trilogy


Last year I watched and thoroughly enjoyed all three movies in Krzysztof Kieślowski's "Three Colours" trilogy.  I recently encountered these commentaries, which are insightful and reasonably concise.


According to JustWatch, these films are currently streaming on Apple TV+ (free trial available). I found the DVDs at our local library.

3 comments:

  1. I'm British and these are classic movies from my teens. The trilogy is taking the principals of the french flag. blue-freedom, white-fartariny- red-brotherhood. So three colours blue is about taking freedom and rubbing your face in it. You want freedom, will give you all the freedom you can take. A wife losses her husband and children in a car crash. The thing i remembered the most is the hand on the wall scene. The tech didn't work so the actress just did it, those tears are real. I love french films. If you wanna watch another I'd recommend Cache ; but this comes with a warning. They made a film about themselves being massive wankers.

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  2. Brilliant filmmaker. I was able to enjoy all three films when they were released and on the big screen. Blue is my favorite. I would note that in Blue, the musical orchestration is like a character in the film. It is complex, incomplete yet pushing for a culmination in order to be performed at unification of Europe celebration. I truly appreciated the music as well as how it was visually represented.

    The director, when Poland was under communist rule, released The Decalog for Polish television. Each, roughly, one hour film was a allegory to the 10 commandments. I enjoyed it as you can see his development as a filmmaker to one who has money and freedom to fully tell a story.

    I find that films created under authoritarians cannot easily use the crutches of a free filmmaker, i.e., gratuitous sex, swearing, violence, overt political speech. They create with a list of what cannot be shown and so, in order to "show" it, they really have to craft. See Iranian filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami, to understand my thought further. He has some really beautiful films.

    Thanks for posting this!

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    Replies
    1. I agree re Dekalog, which I found in our library system the year I was watching the trilogy. Re Iranian films, I would recommend these two:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Separation
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Girl_Walks_Home_Alone_at_Night

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