The Three Colors Trilogy

“And I will start with something here that is very important to me. It’s the trilogy made by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Three Colors. More specifically, Three Colors: Blue. That’s real director master shit. The balance between, and the precision between, the communication between the cinematographer, the director, the director, the cinematographer, and the composer. And I will say that it’s a movie that, when I watch it, it’s one of the rare movies that I... I’m still moved to tears by the cinematography. Voilà. There’s something about the way Kieślowski filmed women, that I was always being moved.”

“I will start with something that I have never seen that I feel very guilty about, which is The Three Colors Trilogy. My friend Andrew Stanton loves these films and he's been trying to get me to watch them for years and, and I haven't, so I'm gonna fix that now.”

“But now that I’m here, I’m also going to take… I was talking about Juliette Binoche last night, and I was saying that for a long time she was a referent. And I was talking about these films. I was talking about how important was Blue in my life, how important was Kieślowski. Not just for these, but the Dekalog, and just the integrity of someone, as a filmmaker. I mean, there’s obviously many, many great referents here, but this one came right… in the right moment in my life. I was 14, 15 years old, and Kieślowski was crucial for me.”

“One of my favorite directors of all time is Kieślowski, and, Blue, White, and Red are amazing trilogy. I love, one of my favorite movies is the, it has a perfect opening where the family drives around the périphérique, I think it's called, Blue. And, they're going to their house in the country. The father is a composer, and, the child, they're driving all night, and the child, there's no dialogue really, in the beginning where you see the child, ask the mother to pull over so they could, she could use the restroom. So the car pulls over, you see the bottom of the car from the driver's side of the car, and the little girl's feet runs out and she sits in the grass and goes to the bathroom. In the foreground, the rack is focused to the hose, the brake hose, and you see the, brake liquid leaking, so you know something's going to happen. The car drives and there's a little boy, playing a, one of those games where the ball bounces into a cup, and he seems to not be able to catch it. And you hear the car, screeching like it's going too fast down this country road, and, you see a dog running, you see the boy, running after the dog, you hear an accident, the boy actually finally catches the ball, and you cut to a car against a tree with just a wheel spinning. And so much was told without any dialogue. I thought it was a perfect setup for a movie, you know, it was very powerful, and, that kind of blew my mind about making movies. It was the power of movie. Very powerful opening movie, and that changed my whole, way of trying to tell stories. Unfortunately I'm a cinematographer, my contribution isn't always narrative, but when I can, I think about that Kieślowski movie and how they set that story up.”

“Krzysztof Kieślowski. The trilogy of the Three Colors. He did Blue, White, and Red. And specifically Blue, I think the use of music in this film has really changed me and educated me as a filmmaker. Music is very important in my world, in the movies that I do. And I think there’s something here, hearing in this film that I truly, truly value. If you have the chance to see it, look.”

“[Translated] There's more. And here's another one of his, a very famous movie. This one really surprised me back then, Three Colors Trilogy: Red, White, Blue. I highly recommend this movie. Good.”

“Here is something… I’m not even going to try to pronounce this brilliant man’s name. But I could get the Blue, White, Red part down pretty good. My father always told me about these films, as something that I need to see and should see. He’s the one that kind of inspired me to go into acting and directing, and he said that I need to see these films. I have yet to see them. I am going to see them now.”

“My God. Kieślowski, Three Colors. I think I watched Blue, like, five to ten times. It's, like, my film school. The grief, the blue that represented an emotion and feeling. I remember the chandeliers, the swimming pool. It's a difficult way to tell a story because you're telling an inner world. And he externalized it just so perfectly. So perfectly. And, of course, also there is Red. Warmer, much warmer, the connectedness between people, compassion, and also something whimsical, of a retired judge always listening to the neighbor, and the encounter with the beautiful model. Also the red is in the billboards, in the light, the crimson. I don't have words for it. You have to see it.”