3 Colors

Watching an extra in the Special Features of “Blue” where director / cinematographer Krzysztof Kieslowski describes (in 1994) the construction of the cafe/sugarcube scene and the logistics required to make sure it took exactly 4-5 seconds for the coffee to diffuse through the sugarcube.

He also describes why he chose each close-up and the philosophy of the scene.

In the extra in the disc of “White” – he describes the beginning, where the main character enters the courthouse cut between shots of the suitcase on the conveyer belt.

This beginning was re-cut. He describes the intentional primitive images in all three films – a wheel on the road, a suitcase on a belt, and some wires in “Red.” The hero is intentionally awkward in movement and in dress, originally using long shots to let the audience absorb the hero’s mannerisms. However this was too long, so it was re-cut with the suitcases.

The hero is “marked” by a pigeon, which has tradition behind it in addition to the director “marking” the character for emphasis. Also it’s humiliating: Kieslowski describes “White” as being a movie about humiliation. Look at his face when he wipes the poop off his shoulder.

The suitcase is seen in the beginning and is meaningless. But it is a preview that we see later when we know what is in it (actually I kind of assumed there was a body in it, but that is probably because I watch too many yakuza movies).

“Red” is the best of the three. Irene Jacob is super hot, and her every movement is posed to match the light position exactly. The color choices are also the most strict of the three: every item in every shot is black or red.

The plot is the most self-referential: all the elements refer to each other at the end: the billboard image and the still from the news, and the young and old judge, with the same women and same experience with law books. In fact, the same experience with the “other man”: the young judge loses his blonde gf to the model’s photographer, but the photographer essentially loses his model to her England trip where the young judge is. The main characters from the previous two movies also make a very brief cameo.

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