Three colours red = Trois couleurs rouge [DVD]

Three colours red is the last instalment in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s trilogy based on the three ideals of the French revolution - liberty, equality and fraternity, and was the unanimous choice of critics at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. It is a film that returns to the director’s favourite theme of interconnectedness within an apparently haphazard world. Irene Jacob is fashion model Valentine whose life takes a seemingly random turn when she runs over a dog. She returns the injured animal to its indifferent owner, a world-weary judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who likes to listen in on neighbours phone conversations. Through this chance encounter, Kieslowski explores the impossibilities of justice as the judge re-examines old verdicts and tries to create order in other people’s messes. A parallel story-line involves a young man training to be a judge and his unfaithful girlfriend. As the stories unfold, it becomes increasingly evident they are linked on a far deeper level. This elaborate coda, in which life is seen as a set of pre-ordained events and consequences, culminates in a devastating denouement in which all previous characters from the trilogy are ironically united in tragedy in a truly haunting end to the director’s oeuvre. Co-starring Jean-Pierre Lorit and Frederique Feder. In French with English subtitles. Cinematography, Piotr Sobockinski. Editing, Jacques Witta. Music, Zbigniew Preisner. Screenplay, Krzysztof Piesiewicz and Krzysztof Kieslowski.