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February 5, 2004
The Trilogy
Following a path that I can only describe as Kieslowskian, Belgian director Lucas Belvaux has made a trilogy of movies that are being released sequentially. The Kieslowski trilogy, Blue, White, and Red, also shifts between genres (mostly between wistful drama and dark comedy) and has some moments of character and story overlap, as did his earlier Dekalog series, but this new series is structurally more ambitious. Marginal characters from one movie are the protagonists of others, and some of the same scenes appear from different perspectives in more than one film. But the real kicker is that each film represents a different genre. The first film, On the Run, is a political/crime revenge movie, the second is a romantic comedy, and the third is a straight drama.
I saw On the Run last night, and was most impressed by the mix of chase scenes and crime set-ups much like those in Le Cercle Rouge, and the domestic details and mundane elements of home life. The main character, a former anarchist revolutionary, escapes from prison to find his old cohorts have given up agitation and settled into growun-up routines. The masses he wishes to fight for no longer exist the way they did 20 years earlier, and his political terrorist activities come off as destructive and meaningless, rather than radical.
The NY Times review of On the Run isn't so flattering, but other reviews lead me to believe that the full effect of the trilogy and its shifting subjectivities is understood only once you've seen all three. An Amazing Couple opens tomorrow, and the last film, After Life, next Friday. Of course, this only applies to NYC.
