From the Collection: Three Colors Trilogy

Krzysztof Kieślowski’s 1994 landmark trilogy, Three Colors, recently got a 4k release. The good folks at Criterion sent me a copy of the box set to check out.

From Krzysztof Kieślowski comes the Three Colors trilogy, a defining event of the art-house boom of the 1990s. The films are named for the colors of the French flag and stand for the tenets of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—but that hardly begins to explain their enigmatic beauty and rich humanity. Set in Paris, Warsaw, and Geneva, and ranging from tragedy to comedy, Blue, White, and Red (Kieślowski’s final film) examine a group of ambiguously interconnected people experiencing profound personal disruptions with artistic clarity. Marked by intoxicating cinematography and stirring performances by Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy, Irène Jacob, and Jean-Louis Trintignant, Kieślowski’s Three Colors is a benchmark of contemporary cinema.

The film is considered by many as one of the greatest trilogies ever made, kevflix.com included, and a seminal piece of foreign cinema in the 90s. Heralded by critics upon its release, the films have only grown in popularity and legacy. Red, the third film in the trilogy, was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1995, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. Film critic Roger Ebert ranked the trilogy as the fifth best movie of the 1990s and has written extensively about the film, which everyone should read.

Here’s what the boxset includes:

• New 4K digital restorations, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
• One 4K UHD disc of each film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray of each film with special features
• Three cinema lessons with director Krzysztof Kieślowski
• Interviews with co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz, composer Zbigniew Preisner, and actors Julie Delpy, Irène Jacob, and Zbigniew Zamachowski
• Selected-scene commentary featuring actor Juliette Binoche
• Video essays by film critics Annette Insdorf, Tony Rayns, and Dennis Lim
• Documentary from 1995 featuring Kieślowski
• Three short films by Kieślowski—The Tram (1966), Seven Women of Different Ages (1978), and Talking Heads (1980)—plus the short film The Face (1966), starring Kieślowski
• Interview programs on Kieślowski’s life and work, featuring Binoche, Insdorf, Jacob, film critic Geoff Andrew, filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, cinematographer Sławomir Idziak, producer Marin Karmitz, and editor Jacques Witta
• Behind-the-scenes programs for White and Red, and a short documentary on Red’s world premiere
• Trailers
• PLUS: Essays by film critics Colin MacCabe, Nick James, Stuart Klawans, and Georgina Evans; an excerpt from Kieślowski on Kieślowski; and reprinted interviews with cinematographers Idziak, Edward Kłosiński, and Piotr Sobociński

The blu ray version of the Three Colors trilogy had already been a staple in the Criterion Collection, but this 4k collection is an absolute stunner. Criterion has been slowly re-releasing films in their collection on 4k and Three Colors is the best one I have seen so far. The box set is loaded with special features, with the highlights being the cinema lessons with Kieślowski and the three Kieślowski short films. Hearing the master talk about movies and watching more of his films was such a wonderful experience.

As mentioned above, I rank the Three Colors trilogy as one of the greatest trilogies ever made. What makes it a great trilogy is that each film is great on its own, but all three films come together for a truly beautiful and grand vision. Blue, White, and Red (my personal favorite) can all be looked at as some of the best films in Kieślowski’s filmography and are some of the greatest foreign films I have ever seen. As a whole piece, this is a towering achievement about connection, life, and the human condition. Seeing these films was truly life-changing and everyone should see Kieślowski’s masterpiece.

You can pick up the Three Colors trilogy on 4k on the Criterion website or anywhere they sell Criterion Collection DVDs.

From the Collection is an analysis piece of non-new-release movies, whether seen on DVD, streaming, or in a theater, and includes a brief history of the film, a review of the film, and content about the experience of seeing the film and/or the contents of the film’s DVD.

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