Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski Director Krzysztof Kieślowski | Music by Zbigniew Preisner | |
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Produced by Marin Karmitz
Yvonne Crenn Written by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Piesiewicz Starring Juliette Binoche
Zbigniew Zamachowski
Julie Delpy
Irène Jacob
Jean-Louis Trintignant Cinematography Edward Kłosiński
Piotr Sobociński
Slawomir Idziak Characters Karol Karol, Julie Vignon de Courcy, Le juge Production companies Canal+, Eurimages, France 3 Cinéma Movies Three Colors: Blue, Three Colours: White, Three Colours: Red Cast Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy, Irène Jacob, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Jean‑Louis Trintignant | ||
The Three Colours trilogy (Polish: Trzy kolory, French: Trois couleurs) is a three-part film series directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. Two of the films were made in French and one primarily in Polish: Three Colours: Blue (1993), Three Colours: White (1994), and Three Colours: Red (1994). All three were co-written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz (with story consultants Agnieszka Holland and Sławomir Idziak) and have musical scores by Zbigniew Preisner.
Contents
Red received nominations for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography at the 67th Academy Awards.
Themes
Blue, white, and red are the colours of the French flag in left-to-right order, and the story of each film is loosely based on one of the three political ideals in the motto of the French Republic: liberty, equality, fraternity. As with the treatment of the Ten Commandments in Dekalog, the illustration of these principles is often ambiguous and ironic. As Kieślowski noted in an interview with an Oxford University student newspaper, “The words [liberté, egalité, fraternité] are French because the money [to fund the films] is French. If the money had been of a different nationality we would have titled the films differently, or they might have had a different cultural connotation. But the films would probably have been the same.”
The trilogy is also interpreted respectively as an anti-tragedy, an anti-comedy, and an anti-romance.
Principal cast
Soundtrack
Music for all three parts of the trilogy was composed by Zbigniew Preisner and performed by Silesian Philharmonic choir along with Sinfonia Varsovia.
Reception
Blue holds a 100% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website, based on 39 reviews. The second part of the trilogy, White, was ranked with 90% based on 41 reviews, while its final film, Red, was certified "Fresh" on the same website and received 100% based on 47 reviews.
Roger Ebert included the trilogy in its entirety to his "Great Movies" list.
Ranked #11 in Empire magazine's "The 33 Greatest Movie Trilogies" in 2010.
Ranked #14 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.