It’s been more than a decade since Criterion’s all-timer Three Colors set, which gave Krzysztof Kieślowski’s three (okay… two) masterworks what seemed their fullest due—transfers well above the Miramax DVDs that spent years so omnipresent on cinephile shelves, a semester’s worth of supplemental context to boot. Sight-unseen I (owner of an expensive home-video set) had to wonder at the necessity of a 4K restoration and release.
Until I saw a trailer for Janus’ forthcoming retro. On a compressed 4K Vimeo stream one can practically see every millimeter of coffee infiltrating a sugar cube, the blood running in Julie Delpy’s veins, the deepest of reds—so much texture and noise, well past anything that’s not a proper 35mm print. I stand corrected.
The retro begins at Film at Lincoln Center: Blue starts July 8, White on August 5, and Red on August 26. Watch the preview below: