Chapter 9 The second part three colors: red (11～12)

Like the sunset seen by Valentina, the choice of Jean-Louis Trintignan to play the judge also adds a twilight feeling to the film.The French actor, who starred in such romantic dramas as "A Man and a Woman," also played the aging antihero in Truffaut's posthumous film, "A Murder Case" (1983).Both Kieslowski and Truffaut died within a year of making their last films.In both films, Trintignan plays the director's alter ego, whether it is with Truffaut's beloved Fanny Ardant (in which Fanny's character saves the hero, the director himself) ), or with the radiant Irina Jacobs (who plays a role that awakens long-suppressed compassion and hope in the Judge). The judge in "Red" finally gave up the practice of interfering in other people's lives, which also reflects Kieslowski's idea of ​​"breaking his own wand", just as Prospero's practice of giving up magic also reflects Shakespeare's heart .

Film critic Dave Kehr detailed the repercussions of the Judge's character in his thoughtful "Save the World" piece: Trintignan is the God of the Old Testament, but a poor God with greatly diminished powers.His powers extend to light bulbs, but not to lightning, and his control over winds and seas is explained by his knowledge of a telephone number that provides weather forecasts.He may not be a god at all, he may just think of himself as a god-like filmmakers who create their own little worlds and put in their own characters.Triantignan injected a lot of Kieslowski's contradictions into the judge. It is not difficult for us to imagine that a retired Kieslowski would also live in a whole house alone like a judge , sit quietly amidst the chaos of life. [12]

After "Red" was completed, Kieslowski stated that he was too exhausted to make another film. "If the three films were made separately, I would have lost six years of my life. So now I have gained three years," he joked at Cannes.Is he putting an end to his career in this way, is he trying to be born again?We thought of Mikovay who "lost the motivation for life" in "White". If he is tired, then the retired judge who gave up the wiretapping was "tired" again. He told Valentina: "I don't want anything." "Then stop breathing," she replied. "Good idea," he said.This may be a symbol of Kieslowski himself, a reborn cynic.As Stuart Caravance writes: "Just as Prospero chose to submerge his grimoire in water, our modern wizard ended up in a splash. It was a silent splash: although the Red " ended with a huge sea storm, but the core of the story lies in the abandonment of an old man." He also, like Kyle, connected the judge with Kieslowski, "Kieslows Key has been using his exquisite camera equipment... to track the intersection of other people's lives... Now, before he retires, his double on the screen appears as a judge, and he finally turns off the wiretapping equipment and lets other people's lives continue without his surveillance."[13]

At the Paris Symposium in 1997, Pietsivic may have had "Red" in mind when he said of Kieslowski: "We are afraid of him, but I don't mean by fear here in the sense of malice." He is a judge, a good judge, and a good reference." The director himself is very frank when talking about the role of the judge: "To a large extent, he reflects my worldview. So I often say "Red" is very close to myself." But he also added, "But Valentina's naive look at people and things is also in me... You can think that the opposing positions of these two characters are actually the same. Mine." [14] Irene Jacob also had the same idea: "The opposition between these two characters corresponds to a question in Kieslowski's heart: how does youthful hope relate to maturity? experience coexistence?” [15]

At the turn of the millennium, "Three Colors" seems fitting: Kieslowski's characters finally offer us a sympathetic scene at the end of a century full of mistakes.An image that pops up in all three films: the old man at the recycling bin, puts to the test what Tennessee Williams calls the "kindness of the stranger": Julie in "Blue" doesn't Seeing the old woman trying to put the bottle in the trash can, Carlo in "White" sees it but ignores it, while Valentina in "Red" lends a helping hand.At the 1994 New York Film Festival, Kieslowski explained the scene: "What I'm saying is, 'You can help someone who's too old and infirm to throw the bottle in the trash can. Ladies'. It reminds us that one day we ourselves will be too old to put the bottle in the trash." Valentina's act of helping the elderly is a redemption for herself and for the judge: like the audience, He was also touched by Valentina's simple, kind gesture.Valentina's actions fully confirm Piecivic's brief statement: ""Red" is a film against indifference."[16]

Although "Red" failed to catch the jury's attention at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival—many critics and filmmakers would use the word "scandal" when referring to it—it was a huge success when it was released in the United States.Like many film critics, Kyle also expressed his appreciation of "Red" in highly praised and flowery terms: he called the trilogy "an epic of reconciliation" and praised "Kieslowski's command of the whole film to The film develops towards a meeting point, a magnificent climax. The narrative of the film is as dazzling as the connection of planets in the universe” [17]. "Red" was selected as the best foreign language film of the year by the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Association, and also received three nominations for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography at the Oscars. It's rare for people.

In France, "Red" made Kieslowski's "most important filmmaker in Europe" - Agnès Peck's language - unshakable, and Agnès Peck's three reasons yes: First of all, he is an inheritor of the Chinese-European cultural tradition, which is good at raising questions about important existential propositions—love and death, chance and destiny—and combining aesthetics and intellectual reflection.Second, what he conveys is genuine humanitarianism, rather than a formal moral code or ideology. He has a keen sense of relativity and ambiguity, and is good at asking the audience questions about the present.In the end, apart from the intellectual delights offered by the multilayered readings of his work - psychologically and morally nuanced as much as literature - his films have a certain quality of their own. A rare sensual pleasure.

Kieslowski did not live to be old enough to throw a bottle, and died on March 13, 1996, after undergoing rather than urgent heart surgery at a Warsaw hospital.Tired, previously retired but still teaching at the Lodz and Katowice Film Academy, he went one step further than the characters in his trilogy: he withdrew from the visible world, leaving behind Ghostly prints.