Starring: Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant
Rating: ****
THE FINAL film of the Three Colours trilogy, Red is perhaps the most brilliant and well-balanced of the three. While Blue and White explored the concepts of Liberty and Equality, Red uses the same method - relationships between individuals providing a metaphor for society as a whole - and explores the theme of Fraternity, balancing the intellectual and the emotional forces at work and surpassing Blue and White in its effectiveness.
Beginning with a stunning series of edits that follow a telephone call from its origins in London to the other end of the line in Paris, the film dips in and out of a network of private conversations of various characters - seen and unseen - throughout the complex narrative. The notions of privacy, justice and responsibility that arise are enhanced by Kieslowski's clever use of these conversations as the story gains momentum and the main characters begin to address their own psychological shortcomings - reluctantly at first, but with increasing willingness when they find that by peeling away their self-deception at the urging of the other, they are in fact building a friendship.
Veronique (Irene Jacobs), a student and model, lives a quiet life enlivened only by the phone calls from her boyfriend who is overseas. Her self-enforced privacy is abruptly altered when she accidentally runs over a dog, tracks down its owner, and finds that the retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is an aural voyeur who listens in on his neighbour's phone calls. Horrified by his hobby and his lack of interest in the injured and pregnant dog, Veronique forces herself to interfere in the judge's life, partly out of curiosity and partly because she wishes to be his salvation.
The cautious exchange of ideas between the young, idealistic woman and the sour man who has rejected emotion provides the catalyst for change in both characters, and as their friendship becomes fact, each begins to shed layers of behaviour that have alienated them from real relationships.
All the while the phone conversations between individuals on the periphery continue, adding further insight to the intricacies of the responsibilities of love and the deceptions that are so common therein.
Kieslowski's fondness for portraying the seemingly chance connections between lives recurs again and again as the characters in Red circle about, often missing one another but always engaging in related activities. The young couple whose ill-fated relationship goes awry parallel that of the judge's youthful disappointment, and the suspected heroin dealer across the street infuriates Veronique, who suspects her younger brother has fallen victim to the drug.
This interplay paints a bitterly amusing picture of the complex issues and ideas that plague society. What is privacy, and what are the responsibilities of those who invade it, accidentally or not? Where should the line be drawn between interference for the sake of salvation and letting well enough alone out of respect for the other party? And if salvation appears in the form of another's concern, how can one find the courage to bare all so that change may occur?
Red is a sophisticated, beautiful film that utilises moods and intellectual themes to provide some answers to these questions without wasting an ounce of celluloid. It is a stunning finish to a trilogy that should endure for years as an ironic triptych portraying the complexities of surviving in the modern world.