Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy comes to a soft and lovely conclusion with "Rouge", and finally shows the arc which I had hoped and spoken of in "Bleu". Although I am still not entirely convinced with the Trois couleurs series as a whole, his final film and his overall message made this a worthwhile excursion, and I have to say it made me feel rather inspired.
The film opens with a man attempting to make a phone call from his Genevan apartment. We are taken through wires and circuits, roads and water at breakneck speeds, traversing across great distances only to reach a busy signal. This scene, during the opening credits, in a small way represents the film as a whole. Though we have all the powers of the world at our disposal needed to connect to other individuals, we too often spend our time trying to reach them, oblivious to a world passing us by.
Irene Jacob stars as a model named Valentine whose life collides, quite unexpectedly, with that of a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) following a freak accident. Outside of the world of this mysterious hermit her life revolves around bubblegum ads, newspapers and slot machines, and a series of phone calls with a never seen, uber jealous boyfriend. All the while she and the love of her life never meet, though constantly pass right under each other's noses.
In the Judge's world, however, she is thrust into the lives of people whom she would never normally know about, as he eavesdrops into their sordid secrets with some sort of police radio. Valentine's naivety and good heart combat the Judge's bitterness and cynicism, but they complete each other, and their talks reveal more of life than either has on their own.
I have spent a long time pondering what Kieslowski's final message could have been. Upon seeing this movie, one gets the entire picture. In the end it was never Julie or Karol Karol who were Kieslowski's heroes--it was always Irene. His argument is that grief and revenge mean nothing in our world, yet are ever present. For him, Irene's compassion and desire for understanding and helping her fellow man are all that is important, yet they are so infrequent as we spend all of our time dwelling on the unhappiness of our lives.
Kieslowski's final script is richer, more thoughtful and far more beautiful, as it supplies the good with the bad. It tries not to force its material as was done with the previous two, but relies simply on the interactions that we take for granted, and encourages us to think about the secrets and skeletons that everyone has. There is no such thing as the individual for him, nor are there such things as self-contained occurances. Although he probably believes in happenstance, no meeting is without meaning, and that is reassuring.
You do not need to watch all three films that closely to find the one image which connects them all--his argument would be rendered useless had he decided to make it difficult to find. In the previous two films we watched how the main characters interplayed with this seemingly minor event and thought little about what the protagonists action or inaction meant for our relationship with them. But watch Irene and what she does. Kieslowski does not make an especially big deal out of it, and yet it is the cornerstone to his entire argument. I choose not to describe it because if you take the time to watch his films it should be self-evident.
Lastly, as I have done with "Bleu" and "Blanc", I will discuss what I believe was meant by his choosing to model his films after the Tricolour. In the French flag, the color red symbolizes fraternity. For the first time I find a logical connection between the movie's content and the color's symbolism. The movie is a cry for love, platonic or otherwise. More than that it is also a cry for liberty and equality: the liberty to lead one's life as he chooses, unburdened by the willful agency of others, and the inherent equality that we all possess. To pass judgment on your neighbor is a sign of vanity.
Although I felt a bit hollow about the conclusions reached in his first two chapters, I have always been a fan of Kieslowski's work with his actors, and this is no exception. More than that, I feel a closing of the doors and a contentment with what I have seen. The French often make movies about simple things in life, and although Kieslowski is no Frenchman his ultimate goal has not gone unnoticed.
3.5/4
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