The quintessential expression of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s style and themes, not only because it was his last film, but because here everything is both tied together and unravelled again; the race of passions reaches its end, and withdrawal from the world is no longer an attainable goal. In Trois couleurs: Rouge, everything acquires density, complexity and depth, without the idea of closure imposing itself for a single instant. The dominant formal and narrative structures – those of folding and turning inward – rival mood itself for primacy: it is a film one never stops exploring, and one that continues to say that nothing is definitive… With Rouge, and with the variety of emotions and conditions it presents, one understands why Kieślowski resorted to a trilogy: it is necessary to carry the logic of the characters, as well as their relationships to public space and to others, through to the end, in order to vary the motif without mutilating it. The framework of a single film, bound by the convention of formal unity, could hardly accommodate this. Unfinished destinies, characters brought together only for a moment, would not have sufficed. It was necessary to follow Julie (Blue) and Karol (White) through to the end of their respective choices so that the viewer could situate them in relation to Valentine and the judge, so that his embittered solitude – and, even more so, the breath of fresh air brought by Valentine’s arrival, herself little more than a fragile presence, valuable only for the fragility she brings into this universe – could acquire meaning. If Rouge is the film of inward retreat, it is also a celebration of welcomed fragility, which courageously introduces the risk of openness and feelings into the folds of a cold survival. Vincent Amiel, Kieslowski, Rivages, Paris 1995 In Trois couleurs: Rouge, a young model returns an injured female dog to its owner, a judge played by Jean-Louis Trintignant. Krzysztof Kieślowski used to say that this encounter resembles a dialogue between idealised youth and wounded, disillusioned maturity. The way I spoke in the film was his way of speaking: that economy of words, that way of saying uncomfortable things in order to provoke reactions and forge connections. They are also characters who expose themselves to risk. Kieślowski loved gambling, tossing a coin and placing his faith in chance. The judge is so unpleasant toward Valentine that one cannot understand why she keeps coming back: it’s what the entire story revolves around. The central theme of the film is fraternity, it recounts the meeting of two people with nothing in common.

Irène Jacob, Krzysztof Kieślowski vu par Irène Jacob, “Troiscouleurs”, 7 October 2021 Trois couleurs: Rouge