Seeing the promotions for this film nearly omnipresent in New York last month thanks
to IFC - it's an ideal coincidence to find it here in Seattle upon my return. "Red Riding",
a trilogy of films adapting David Peace's fictionalized crime investigation/Yorkshire serial
murder novels, each film by a different director, each set in a different time period, as
the grinding, meticulous, bureaucratically compounded investigation comes up against
corruption, money and the powers that-be (both within law enforcement and without)
that want to bring it to a standstill again and again. Realized in the best tradition of recent
detective cinema (think David Fincher's career highlight; "Zodiac") as a complex puzzle of
events wherein we the viewer know as much (or as little) as the historic and/or fictional
character's dedication (read obsession) drives them to seek justice and resolution within
a tangled labyrinth of facts, fabrications, dead ends, lies and hidden connections over the
course of decades of investigation, where with the passing of time, truth becomes more
and more obscured.
From the IFC site: "Sure to be one of the cinematic events of the year, "Red Riding" is a
mesmerizing neo-noir epic based on factual events and adapted for the screen by Tony
Grisoni from David Peace’s electrifying series of novels. 1974 - (directed by Julian Jarrold)
centers on a rookie journalist investigating a series of child abductions and murders with
possible ties to corrupt police, business, and politicians. 1980 - (directed by James Marsh)
finds the police and the public still baffled that the “Ripper” remains at large and may have
inspired a copycat killer. In 1983 - (directed by Anand Tucker), Detective Maurice Jobson
notices a number of powerful similarities between the abduction of another young girl and
cases he had investigated back in the ’70s - for which a man was convicted and sentenced."
Link to Northwest Film Forum's "Red Riding" Trilogy site
Link to IFC Films "Red Riding" Special Roadshow Edition site
Link to IFC Films "Red Riding - 1974" site
Link to IFC Films "Red Riding - 1980" site
Link to IFC Films "Red Riding - 1983" site
