The Blue Room

THE BLUE ROOM is the new thriller being hailed at The Cannes Film Festival and The New York Film Festival, from writer/director/actor Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Grand Budapest Hotel, Quantum of Solace, On Tour) and adapted from the French Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon's 1964 novel. This is a mystery about Julien (Amalric), a salesman deep in an affair with femme fatale Esther (Stephanie Cleau, co-writer). The film opens with intercuts between lovers Julien and Eshter together in an eponymous sleazy motel room in postcoital union and Julien alone under investigation in another eponymous interrogation room for a crime unknown; it then evolves into a taut thriller with a completely original concept in the vein of Pulp Fiction and The Usual Suspects, climaxing with stellar performances, especially from Lea Drucker (Just Before Losing Everything, The Man of My Life) and Laurent Poitrenaux (Living on Love Alone), and culminating in betrayal, longing, and sexual fury in a third eponymous room.

Director of Photography Christophe Beaucarne's room-like 1:33.1 aspect ratio, Gregoire Hetzel's haunting score, and Francois Gedigier's poetic editing all contribute to Amalric's enigmatic and erotic vision of not a whodunit but a whodunwhat. Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter writes, "[Amalric's] latest effort, The Blue Room (La Chambre bleue), takes a cue from both classic Hollywood noir and the time-shuffling narratives of the late Alain Resnais, telling a familiar story in ways that can feel compellingly new." Mary Corliss of TIME Magazine writes, "Splendidly taut, forcefully understated and, at just 76 minutes, blessedly concise." Boyd van Hoeij of indieWIRE writes, "What impresses most in this modern-day update of the 1964 novel is Amalric's total dedication to making the passion between Julien and Esther feel palpable, since the entire story hinges on their rapport."