Three Colors: Red (1994)

Final entry in a trilogy of films dealing with contemporary French society concerns a model who discovers her neighbour is keen on invading people's privacy (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Written By: Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Irène Jacob, Samuel Le Bihan, Benoît Régent, Teco Celio, Jean-Pierre Lorit, Frédérique Feder, Bernard Escalon, Marion Stalens
Genres: Romance, Drama, Mystery
Franchise: Three Colors
AKAs: Three Colours: Red, Trois couleurs: Rouge
Country: France, Poland, Switzerland
Where to Stream
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Three Colors: Red belongs to 116 collections
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Browse the full list of collections
Stars | User | Rating | |
7 | ![]() |
TonythePony | 95 98th |
So beautiful that I didn't want this to end. Breathtaking visuals, a bewitching plot, and intriguing characters without a wasted line of dialogue. Parallels and intersecting destinies can frustrate me, but not here it is just too well realised. Foreshadowing throughout is nuanced and satisfying as it leads towards an exquisite final frame.
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frederic_g54 | 10 97th |
Storywise, it's definitely an improvement over Blue, I mean, few films are so masterfully constructed, lavishly executed and impeccably performed. It will reach the deepest and innermost chambers of your heart, long after it's finished. A perfect ending to a one of kind trilogy, not to be missed !!!
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Icarus | 99 98th |
A mysterious and affecting close to Kieslowski's monumental trilogy, Red traces the burgeoning friendship between a retired judge and a youthful model. Expertly paced, touchingly scored, and surprisingly written, the film manages to deliver a portrait of a friendship that has no business existing--and yet it does. There's an underlying joie de vivre that gives the film and the trilogy a hopeful tone. One might think of Red as something of a modern take on the old Beauty and the Beast fable.
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chemical404 | 86 98th |
Warmest and most accessible film in Kieslowski's colors trilogy. Red means fraternity (friendship), but on the deeper level this film is about often invisible connections between people, chance meetings and randomness of our very existence. To quote one of my favorite writers Milan Kundera - ignoring coincidences in daily life means depriving ones life of a dimension of beauty. Like an individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty, Kieslowski does the same with this film.
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Magb | 90 85th |
An excellent ending to the trilogy. It's quite impressive how different all three of the films are in terms of tone. Blue is intensely sorrowful, White is light and comical, and Red is -- in a word -- mysterious. The most intriguing part of the film to me was the character of the judge, who acts as the driving force of the film, and indeed the whole world that the film takes place in.
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emtilt | 100 99th |
Seriously, what a way to end your career. Unbelievably good. It's the best of the trilogy, with Blue being a close second.
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bof | 79 80th |
Right now my least favourite of the trilogy, which still makes it a damn fine film, just one that works better on a symbolic level than as an actual story on its own. Great thematic wrapup; from solipsistic Freedom to conflicting Equality to graceful Brotherhood.
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Hawkins | 93 94th |
Echoic and cerebral, almost overstuffed with transference and connections. The theme of electronic surveillance is more alarming nowadays. Not to be overlooked is the simple catharsis of someone finally helping the elderly person recycle their bottle after three movies - in the spirit of fraternity. A stylish and rewarding finale, the warmth of good folks and good dogs under a storm.
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MartinTeller | 92 96th |
A close second to Blue. In a way, it's the perfect summation of Kieslowski, with all the doubling, connectedness, coincidence, exploration of humanity, and cinematic expertise. I still think Irene Jacob is a little bland, but she's growing on me.
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eveelun | 90 97th |
My favorite of the trilogy. It is just as technically impressive as Blue (wonderful music, great acting, beautiful cinematography), and the storytelling is superb, filled with nuance, great characterization, and intriguing conversations.
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Moribunny | 38 23rd |
Cold, calculated, overly serious, self-important and yet simple-minded. Even at times when it achieves drama, Red hasn't a semblance of humor, warmth or the intricacy of actual life. Never mind the clumsy narrative structure.
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terrymac | 89 96th |
Stylish, intelligent and involving film-making, providing an effective ending to a very watchable trilogy. I don't think I'm quite smart enough to understand all of the themes and meanings permeating this and the other two films, but such is their quality that I'm willing to give them all a rewatch and have a try (I have also got my hands on The Double Life of Veronique to watch next). This, and the other Three Colours films, are excellent, and highly recommended.
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2 | ![]() |
Pickpocket | 9 93rd |
The best of the trilogy. The use of colors isn't as striking as in Blue, but still great. The story is way better and engaging. The camera work in this is incredible.
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Mentaculus | 89 88th |
Fraternité is here meant to subvert what the very concept evokes: frater - brother - as one of our mains is a Big Brother, a judge, judging from his surveillance state, and finding an unlikely kinship with a model graced with one of our most famous movie bubblegum images. It has all the hallmarks of a ghost story without the supernatural; that alone hints that our common spectral trajectory of disconnection can be averted somehow, perhaps like three disjointed films united through comic tragedy.
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Quicky | 86 91st |
Three Colors: Red is very different from the other two films of the trilogy, yet clearly belongs to it. Red is all about mystery and finding one's soulmate with the mysterious judge and the searching Valentine being the main characters. The cinematography filled with red elements and the acting of Irène Jacob and Jean-Louis Trintignant are both excellent and the accompanying soundtrack sets the mysterious mood well. Red definitely has replayability, as nothing in this film is filler.
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paulofilmo | 75 94th |
Beautiful editing. Perhaps Bleu has the stills, but Red is a visual masterpiece of rhythmic imagery. Stimulating dialogue is a bonus.
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DavidBlast | 80 80th |
Dificult film to rate. While the end scene is pure art, the different storylines are perfectly dovetailed to the point of feeling claustrophobic and contrived. The use of red in every scene (almost every shot) proves distracting and borderline pretentious, but somehow, with all these shortcomings, the mastery of images and syuzhet keeps this puppy in the good books. Speaking of: Does Kieslowski hate dogs or what?
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AndreasThau | 100 99th |
I. am. BLOWN. away. I don't know if I can explain it. Beauty in color, in camera movement, framing. Bodily beauty. Such a SUPREME dialogue and such perfectionist acting. Comprehension of how people can never fully judge each other spiced with a recipe of how to sometimes just open one's mind to profound beauty, can be found in this here film. Kieslowski's trilogy offers some nice takes on the tricky nature of coincidence and chance, but it is only in 'Red' that the potential reaches its maximum.
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1 | ![]() |
Harmonica | 94 96th |
Sublime conclusion to a rich, emotive trilogy and indeed a masterful career. The sort of film that you want to talk about with everyone but would rather say nothing for fear of spoiling a second of it. Moving and triumphant cinema.
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Derekstar | 90 85th |
Of the trilogy, this is perhaps the most difficult to understand. All three movies demand multiple viewings, but especially this one. The line between plain ol' foreshadowing and some kind of otherworldly mysticism becomes blurred, and it's not clear what the final 5 minutes of the film is trying to tell me. The final shot is mysterious, but so powerful that it literally had me slack jawed. This entire trilogy boarders on perfection. I'm so glad that I finally got around to seeing it.
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1 | ![]() |
Nathan S | 2 21st |
Not ill-conceived, but disappointing. The grand scheme of circumstance and coincidence all seems less profound when it's so verbose and on-the-nose. A little heavy on platitudes and truisms.
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PeaceAnarchy | 91 95th |
A beautiful film with an excellent performance by Irene Jacob. My favorite of the trilogy because it strikes a more balanced tone than the other two, combining their strengths to make a deeply moving and enjoyable character study. The ending is the only thing keeping me from giving it a better score, it wasn't bad but didn't feel right.
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1 | chengming | 85 93rd |
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It's a little known fact that the red from title is a reference to the crazy amounts of Coca-Cola cinematographer Piotr Sobocinski drank during the shoot, causing him not to be able to sit still during a single scene. The camera movements work really well with the subject matter though, and while the insistence on red objects seems almost gimicky in this one, pictures are sublime again. Also like the story which meanders along like a Kundera novel.
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1 | kav | 72 63rd |
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I kind of feel like it deserves a higher score, but I'd have to watch it again. Fascinating but confusing.
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1 | ol66 | 51 44th |
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The best of the trilogy. The story is well-told and the characters live on in the memory. The ending doesn't really work, but there's enough in here to keep you interested.
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1 | ![]() |
omgfridge | 9 92nd |
Ends one of the best movie trilogies I have seen. All made within two years as well. Colours/music while not as powerful here are overshadowed by the much better story. Blue is still my favorite but this is a close second.
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1 | ![]() |
katje_ | 78 56th |
Wouldn't say it's a bad movie, but I wonder what's to it other than good photography. Not like the story's exceptional, and the dialogues are as simple as dialogues get. See, what I think everyone can learn from this is that keeping a movie too visual can be a hard task.
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1 | ![]() |
deaddilly | 90 94th |
For me, "Red" was the grandest and most mystifying of the triptych. Beneath its effectiveness as a human drama, it is a film predicated on exploring the force behind our invisible interconnectedness with one another. It is beautiful that Kieslowski's last film was his most deliberate attempt to provide meaning to all that happens in life.
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1 | ![]() |
Rufam | 80 85th |
The term "beautiful" doesn't even begin to describe how good "Rouge" looks. As in the previous chapters of the trilogy, the story taking place could be painfully dull in a another film but a talented cast and a director of immense capacities transform it into a pensive, moving and breath-taking tale about parallel lives, destiny and platonic relationships. The film's appeal derives from its mood and atmosphere -it has to be seen to be believed. Without question, it's the best of the three.
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1 | ![]() |
afx237vi | 90 95th |
Simultaneously the most accessible and the most mysterious of the three films. The scenes between Jacob and Trintignant are sublime, and the stuff about fate, coincidence and inter-connectedness is well realised, but the film is so rich in detail and nuance that I feel I need to see it about five more times before it all starts to sink in. Considering how beautiful the cinematography is, that's not such a chore.
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1 | ![]() |
Alon Reter | 65 57th |
There's a certain soft quality to it which I enjoyed, and I loved the cinematography and art direction, but even though it tries, "Red" goes nowhere. I do like it, but I still feel a bit disappointed. I felt like there are tons of wasted potential here.
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Gnalkhere | 90 91st |
I loved Blue almost immediately upon first viewing some few years ago, but Red grew on me. This was the one that's the grower.
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W00DY | 92 97th |
A finale that doesn't disappoint. 'Red' just about edges 'Blue' and 'White' because of the mysterious nature of the narrative, but in reality the quality of writing is simply amazing in all three films. Once again, Kieslowski's technical wizardry produces a gorgeous feast for the eyes and the score compliments beautifully. The acting is faultless and the dialogue is so natural it's eerie.
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rebeccalex | 90 95th |
I thoroughly enjoyed all three films, although blue was my favourite. A great ending to the trilogy.
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Average Percentile 77.5% from 3812 Ratings | ![]() |