The same year as Criterion's release of their brilliant (overdue!) remastered Blu-Ray box set we get those very prints at SIFF of one of the defining works of European cinema from the late 20th Century. What many consider to be Krzysztof Kieslowski's ultimate realization in all of his filmography of tales of synchronicity, lives lived, loss, love and time. Almost reaching melodrama pitch in this one yet always reigning in the 'magic realism' just short of the fantastical, fairy-tale, or idealistic, the balance tread in the complexity of ambiguous moral tales from his "Dekalog" is narrowed in scope and refined in it's emotional precision in these, the last of Kieslowski's films. Significant to this trilogy, the cinematography of Piotr Sobocinski and scores by Zbigniew Preisner (his Requiem for Kieslowski most recently heard in Malick's "Tree of Life") both longtime collaborators. To set the stage for our return to Krzysztof's vitally political, moralistic, sensorial, emotional, richly populated, synchronicitous world, here's the Mubi Notebook entry of earlier this year and let's revisit the DAUNTING coverage from last year in the pages of The Guardian UK. From SIFF: "This bold cinematic trilogy - a benchmark of contemporary cinema - tells three ambiguously interconnected tales about love and loss with the enigmatic beauty and rich humanity that are the trademarks of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski. "Blue" stars Juliette Binoche in a devastating performance, "White" features Julie Delpy in a darkly comic love story, "Red" reunites the director with the luminous Irène Jacob ("The Double Life of Véronique")."
