Red (1994)

The final installment of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's brilliant THREE COLORS trilogy, RED stands for Fraternity (of Liberty and Equality) in the French flag and national motto. Valentine Dussaut (the angelic Irene Jacob), a young student and model, accidentally hits a dog with her car. She attends to its injuries, only to discover that the animal's bitter owner, Judge Joseph Kern (Jean-Louis Trintignant), doesn't care for it--or anything--anymore. Valentine adopts the dog, but it runs away, straight back to the judge's home. When she returns to fetch the animal, she is shocked to find the judge eavesdropping on his neighbors' telephone conversations. Although initially morally disgusted, Valentine finds herself mesmerized by him; his sorrow and isolation intrigue her, and mirror her own feelings of sadness. Soon their relationship evolves into a platonic, yet passionate love that frees the judge from his guilt and cynicism, and opens a future of happiness for Valentine. Kieslowski's last film as a director is a bona fide work of art--aesthetically pleasing, philosophically challenging, and supremely engaging. As in the other films of the trilogy where he makes intentional use of the colors of the titles BLUE and WHITE within the films, here he employs the color red, on several levels, to further explore and illuminate the themes of this particular story. Although the director's early death was a tragic loss for the film world, his THREE COLORS trilogy will stand forever as one of cinema's most profound achievements.