Yesterday I devoted my afternoon to viewing the Red Riding trilogy at a press event. The acclaimed trilogy really was meant to see in one massive run like this. While all three films (1974, 1980, and 1983) were done by different directors with very different styles, the scripts were all written by Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Tideland) and the same characters and actors appear in all of them. This is an epic tale spanning a decade, and you’ll have to devote some serious time to get the full experience.
IFC has just released these trailers for each installment.
As we told you a week ago, these films will play together at IFC starting on February 5th, and it’s really the the only way to see Red Riding. Things brought up in the first film aren’t resolved to the end of the third, and incidental characters become major ones in subsequent films. If you’re not paying rapt attention to the screen you might easily get confused with all the names being thrown around.
As for the quality, it’s nothing earthshattering but they’re quite fascinating and entertaining. Those looking for the dark serial killer films as suggested in the marketing should look somewhere else- these are more stories of corruption and what happens when good people try to butt heads against a greater force.
Devin nails the first in his review here but each concurrent film sadly declines in quality. But it is quite the experience to see them together, although there are many other series that work better when seen back-to-back (Lord of the Rings, Pusher, Phantasm, just to name a few.)
One weird note that may hopefully not affect your screening- our print of Red Riding 1974 was subtitled. Not too sure why this was the case as it’s in English! I suppose some Americans clearly haven’t seen enough British cinema and can’t figure out the Yorkshire acccent, but all it did was make for a distraction.
Regardless, these are very beautiful (especially 1983, which was shot on the glorious Red) and thoughtful films, ones you’ll discuss with your friends for weeks.
Check the official site for more.
3 comments
Weren't this on telly while back? I'm not gannae watch that at t'pictures am I?
Would love to read a write-up of your thoughts on the films, Alex
Just finished watching them yesterday evening. Watched the first one a week ago, the last two back to back. I was very dissapointed, not because they are especially bad, but because they weren't especially good either, and I've seen so much hype about them online. They feel like a cliched film students impressionistic take on a James Ellroy novel. The first two episodes especially leave so much of the story to implication, while focusing on paper thin characters and their romantic tribulations that it becomes frustrating at the ground they don't cover. It would be one thing if we were dealing with factual events, where it wouldn't be necessary to develop the world in detail, but even though there are factual backdrops to the stories, they go waaaaaay off the deep end very quickly. They certainly have great production values and solid casts however.
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.