"When Krzysztof Kieslowski died on March 13, 1996," wrote Richard Williams a decade later in the Guardian, "it was as though a certain kind of cinema had come to an end along with him." A retrospective look at our archive content on the Polish director hammers home his point: this was a man of rare vision and brilliance. And his central achievement, the Three Colours trilogy – which takes its titles from the colours of the French flag, and inspiration from the political ideals at the heart of the Republic (liberty, equality, fraternity) – is an uncontested landmark in European cinema.
It was also, sadly, his final achievement: Kieslowski took early retirement at 52 after making the last in the trilogy, Red, then had a fatal heart attack two years later. It makes the impact (and import) of his tricolour trilogy seem all the greater.
From this Friday on the film site, we'll be streaming the three films for a small fee. And we'd like you watch them with us, so from Tuesday to Thursday next week, we'll also be liveblogging them – one each night, starting at 7pm GMT (though you'll be able to watch them at any point from this Friday).
Xan Brooks will be in the hot seat on Tuesday 15 November for the first film, Three Colours Blue (here's Derek Malcolm's review from 1993, plus an interview Kieslowski did at the time with Jonathan Romney). On Wednesday 16 November, join Andrew Pulver for Three Colours White (here's what we thought at the time). And on Thursday 17 November, Peter Bradshaw, who's also blogging about the series tomorrow, will be in the hot seat for Three Colours Red (Malcolm's review, his animated analysis of why it was beaten by Pulp Fiction for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1994, a Simon Hattenstone interview with Kieslowski, then on the verge of retirement, and a later interview with its star, Irène Jacob).
The streams will only be available in the UK and Eire, so if you want to join in and you're outside those territories, this is the time to think about renting or buying the DVDs (a new Blu-ray version is out in the UK through Artificial Eye on 21 November).
Here's a little more reading from our archive to whet your appetite …
• Derek Malcolm on Kieslowski ahead of a film season celebrating his work in 2003.
• Appreciations of A Short Film About Killing by Malcolm and Rob Mackie
• How Tom Twyker made a movie of Kieslowski's script, Heaven, in 2002
• An interview with Kieslowski's long-term screenwriter, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
• And a plea for such posthumous collaborations to stop.
• Five stars from Peter Bradshaw for the 2006 reissue of 1991's The Double Life of Véronique
We hope you enjoy the streams and that you'll join us next week: do post any feedback, questions or suggestions below.
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