La Nouvelle Vague

Do lok tin si / Fallen Angels (1995)

It is a restless moment. She has kept her head lowered to give him a chance to come closer. But he could not, for lack of courage. She turns and walks away.

Krzystof Kieślowski was (and remains) a titan in the arthouse world. One of his masterpieces was made for television and this year finally got a Blu-ray release, DEKALOG (’88), but it was THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE (’91) that launched his international career and paved the way for the THREE COLORS – a trilogy of films that accomplished the rather stunning feat of premiering at three different major festivals within months of each other. At Venice, BLUE (’93) screened in September, followed five months later by a February screening at Berlin of WHITE (’94), and then three months later in May – the one that wrapped it all up – RED (’94), had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. This Herculean feat was made possible in part by the director’s habit of shooting one film while simultaneously editing the preceding film.