THE TRILOGY
I - ON THE RUN
II - AN AMAZING COUPLE
III - AFTER THE LIFE
Three Separate Films. Three Genres. The Same Characters.
In Grenoble, three very different, but parallel stories unfold. A man escapes from prison and tries to reconnect with old friends and settle scores with old enemies. A husband and wife fall prey to petty jealousies and suspicions. A policeman juggles pressures at work with the demands of his drug-addicted wife. As characters wander in an out of the three films, we watch them transform from leading men or women in their own stories to bit players in those of their acquaintances and friends. In a cinematic gamble without precedent, three feature-length tales are told in three disparate genres, providing not so much the same action from different perspectives as different pieces and consequences of the combined, concurrent actions of all three. Structurally reminiscent of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon and drawing literary inspiration from Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet and the novels of Honoré de Balzac, Lucas Belvaux's Trilogy takes the idea of ever-expanding narrative webs to a new level. The first film is a thriller, the second a romantic comedy, and the third a melodrama. While each can be appreciated on its own, greater resonances emerge by viewing all three. Likewise, a deeper understanding of the characters is gained only through watching them weave in and out of their own stories and those being lived around them. Seen together, the three films become a remarkably cohesive and satisfying achievement. Director Lucas Belvaux himself plays one of the lead roles, accompanied brilliantly by Dominique Blanc, Catherine Frot, Ornella Muti, Gilbert Melki, and François Morel