criterioncollection: “ The capstone to Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski’s brilliant career, the Three Colors trilogy explores the principles of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—through a series of intricately layered human...

criterioncollection:

The capstone to Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski’s brilliant career, the Three Colors trilogy explores the principles of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—through a series of intricately layered human dramas, culminating in 1994’s Oscar-nominated Red. This gorgeously photographed meditation on chance, destiny, and the challenges of interpersonal communication follows a Swiss fashion model (Irène Jacob) and the subtle connections that form between her life and those of an emotionally alienated retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and a young law student in her neighborhood (Jean-Pierre Lorit). In the below excerpt from the latest installment of Observations on Film Art, a Criterion Channel program that focuses on the formal elements of cinema and how they are deployed by some of the world’s greatest auteurs, professor Jeff Smith examines the ways in which Kieślowski uses camera movement to suggest the fated entanglement of the film’s characters.

Camera Movement in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Red

npr: “For decades, women generally kept quiet about being sexually harassed — or even assaulted — at work. But that may be starting to change. The recent New York Times and New Yorker exposés on Harvey Weinstein helped open the flood gates for women...

npr:

For decades, women generally kept quiet about being sexually harassed — or even assaulted — at work. But that may be starting to change. The recent New York Times and New Yorker exposés on Harvey Weinstein helped open the flood gates for women who allege they too have been victims. The #MeToo campaign lead to more stories. So we wondered — why now?

Let’s start by taking a look at what happened to a woman who came forward at a time when we didn’t talk about this stuff. In October, 1991, all eyes were on a Senate hearing in Washington: Anita Hill — an African-American law professor — went before an all-male panel to testify that then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her. “His conversations were very vivid,” she told them. “He spoke about acts that he had seen, and pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals, and films showing group sex or rape scenes.”

Anita Hill kept her cool. “It was a very, very trying day,” she says. Today, Hill teaches law, social policy and gender studies at Brandeis University. She says that by asking questions like ’“why didn’t you speak up?” the senators were providing their own answers. “They were exhibiting the exact kind of behavior that keeps people from coming forward.”

Shame. Character assassinations. The episode took over Hill’s life; she was famously referred to as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.” Years later the author of that line apologized, saying it wasn’t true. Crucially, there were three other women in Washington ready to testify, to corroborate Hill’s account. The senate panel never called them. Hill says, back then, sexual harassment wasn’t taken seriously. “You even had courts that said, ‘Well, these are personal matters and not any matter that the law has any business dealing with,’” Hill recalls.

Women Are Speaking Up About Harassment And Abuse, But Why Now?

Photo: Bettman Archive/Getty Images

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