The Three Colours Trilogy: BFI Film Classics

The Three Colours trilogy by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski (1941-96) is generally regarded as a major triumph of European cinema. An examination of how the ideals of the French Revolution – liberty, equality and fraternity – have meaning in modern life, the trilogy combines visual elegance, narrative complexity and virtuoso performances to extraordinary effect.

In this highly personal appreciation of the trilogy, Geoff Andrew analyses how Kieslowski used his command of the cinema to open up the inner lives of his characters and to chart the way in which these lives are ruled by unseen forces. For Andrew, the trilogy is a poignant, thrilling hymn to the resilience of compassion in the face of adversity. Tracing the links between the trilogy and Kieslowski’s earlier work, he argues that Blue (1993), White and Red (both 1994) are the summation of Kieslowski’s art. This book, which concludes with one of the last interviews Kieslowski ever gave, is a tribute to an exceptional filmmaker.