The Frame

I had heard of Blue as an individual film, but I hadn’t really heard of Red except in the context of the Three Colors trilogy. Hence I was really surprised by how much I loved it! In fact, it was really watching this one that made me rethink the first two and appreciate them more. One thing is that I completely fell in love with Irène Jacob at first sight; the other thing is that it’s just full of so much joy. Looking at the trilogy at a whole, the colors correspond to the blue, white, and red of the French flag, which symbolize “liberty, equality, fraternity,” the three keywords of post-Revolution France. Thus, Blue is about Binoche’s new “liberty” after the death of her family; it has a very individual focus–is liberty a good thing, in this case? Can she understand her freedom in a way that helps her come to terms with their death? White is about equality, especially between a husband and wife, or a woman and a man, or a Polish person and a French person. Red is about fraternity, learning to enter into relationships with other people, and as such, it’s a much warmer, much more lovable film. Even though the three films are only thematically related (the stories really aren’t), they should be watched in order because of the way the themes build up. I sense that these three films will reward many repeat viewings, and that I’ll always find things I didn’t see before. That’s the kind of film I like.
Superior