Three Colors

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Three Colors

Three Colors is the collective title of three films directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, two made in French and one primarily in Polish: Trois couleurs: Bleu (Blue) (1993), Trzy kolory: Biały (White) (in French: Blanc) (1994), and Trois couleurs: Rouge (Red) (1994). All three were co-written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz (with story consultants Agnieszka Holland and Slawomir Idziak) and have musical scores by Zbigniew Preisner.

Blue, white, and red are the colors of the French flag in left-to-right order, and the story of each film is loosely based on one of the three political ideals in the motto of the French Republic: liberty, equality, fraternity. As with the treatment of the Ten Commandments in The Decalogue, the illustration of these principles is often ambiguous and ironic. As Kieslowsky noted in an interview with an Oxford University student newspaper, “The words [liberté, egalité, fraternité] are French because the money [to fund the films] is French. If the money had been of a different nationality we would have titled the films differently, or they might have had a different cultural connotation. But the films would probably have been the same.”

The films were Kieślowski's first major successes outside Poland, and are his most acclaimed works after The Decalogue. Critic Roger Ebert, among others, has referred to the entire trilogy as a masterpiece. It is generally regarded as a major achievement in modern cinema.