Product Description

Praised by critics nationwide as one of the year's 10 best films, RED is a seductive story of forbidden love -- and the unknowable mystery of coincidence. The final chapter in Krzystof Kieslowski's acclaimed "Three Colors" triology, RED stars sexy Irene Jacob (THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE) as a young model whose chance meeting with an unusual stranger leads her down a path of intrigue and secrecy. As her knowledge of the man deepens, she discovers an astonishing link between his past ... and her destiny! Academy Award(R)-nominated for writing, direction, and cinematography, RED is Kieslowski's crowning achievement -- a fascinating mystery sure to dazzle and entertain!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17532 in DVD
• Brand: Disney
• Released on: 2003-03-04
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.com
The final section of the late Krzysztof Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colors trilogy (preceded by Blue and White) is the least likely of the three to stand alone, and indeed benefits from a little familiarity with the first two parts. Nevertheless, it's a strong, unique piece that reflects upon the ubiquity of images in the modern world and the parallel subjugation of meaningful communication. Irene Jacob plays a fashion model whose lovely face is hugely enlarged on a red banner no one in Geneva can possibly miss seeing. Striking up a relationship with an embittered former judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who secretly scans his neighbors' conversations through electronic surveillance, Jacob's character becomes an aural witness to the secret lives of those we think we know. Kieslowski cleverly wraps up the trilogy with a device that brings together the principals of all three films. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
The last and best film in the trilogy that began with the baffling "Blue'' and continued with the more acrid "White''; here all the skills of the director, Krzysztof Kieslowski, are brought into melancholy play. Blind chance or benign fate (according to your point of view) brings Valentine (Irène Jacob), a young model living alone in Geneva, into contact with a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) with a predilection for eavesdropping on telephone conversations. (It's the most authentic route he can find into the mysteries of human behavior.) In time Valentine's repulsion shades into curiosity, and from there into affection. And the movie itself shades from coldness and contrivance into a story as touching and mysterious as anything Kieslowski has ever made. Trintignant's performance as the misanthropic old man is a portrait of heartbreak, all the more convincing for his character's last-ditch efforts to mend other hearts. At the end, Kieslowski, too, assumes the mantle of Prospero, magically (and rather absurdly) assembling the trilogy's main players, and it's hard to begrudge the master his final flourish. In French. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Red is the color of love
This is a sometimes clever, sometimes corny, but always beautiful story of predestined love.

Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a retired judge, corrupted by an all-consuming cynicism, who meets a beautiful girl, but doesn't fall in love with her. Instead, his reincarnation does, and he mystically orchestrates their predestined meeting. The girl is played by Irène Jacob, who is earnest, warm, uncorrupted and beautiful. She's a French model unloved by her boyfriend (fool that he is) with a demeanor proud, but not vain, vulnerable, but not weak.

The judge is so pathetic that he spies on his neighbors' phone conversations to spice up his lonely and pitiful existence. Their love affairs, their spats, their crimes are piped into him as he sits alone in his house. But she has the genius to appreciate him and to understand him, and so frees him from his bitterness.

We see in this, the final third of director Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy, something reminiscent of his countryman, Roman Polanski, in his passion for young actresses and his ability to bring out the best in them. We see further in the character of the retired judge a projection of ideas about how an old man, past any pretense, might love a young woman: wisely, delicately, from a slight distance, without a hint of lechery.

Irène Jacob makes us believe that innocence and instinctive goodness are wondrous qualities, regrettably not much touted these days. More often depicted are women who would rather sing proudly of being bitches while acting out violent, two-fisted, emulations of a bogus masculinity, e.g., see "Single White Female," etc.

Red is for her lips, for the color of curtains and theater seats, for the color of her true love's utility vehicle (often in her sight, but not yet recognized), for doors and panels and for the warm beat of her heart. Her name is Valentine. She is the dream of the worldly man who has known many women, whose head is not easily turned. And red is for the ringing of the phone, heard in its urgency as red.

I liked this better than Blue or White, both of which were very good; but the clash of innocence and cynicism here, with youth and age so aptly contrasted, along with a clever plot (Kieslowski loves to surprise us), highlighted by captivating performances from the leads, make this the best of the three.

Fantastique! Of all the movies to be unavailable...
Originally, this was the third of the trilogy that I viewed, and it totally blew the first two away. After a long search to find this for sale on video (okay, I basically gave up), I found it and had the pleasure of being blown away by it a second time. This is one of those movies that you don't think of immediately when someone asks for a recommendation. Even as I write this, my memories of the movie are secondary to my memories of how amazed I was by it. It's like I'm watching it for the first time every time. Not many movies can do that.

Beautiful Slice of Life
This, the third and final installment of Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy, is the best in the series. It is the story of a beautiful young model who meets a lonely old man through a complete coincidence.

It is important that it is a coincidence, for Kieslowski seems to be saying that so much of our lives is random and beyond our control. This man and woman never knew they would meet, but somehow they did.

We are unsure of what will happen to them. Will they become friends? Will they ever see each other again? The story is very subtle and poignant and completely unpredictable (unlike most Hollywood films).

You will probably enjoy this best if you've seen the first two films in the series ("Blue" and "White") first. All three are highly recommended.