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.