The Blue Room (2014)

Directed by: Mathieu Amalric
Country: France

Movie Review: Actors Mathieu Almaric and Stéphanie Cléau star and share the writing credits of “The Blue Room”, a mystery crime tale à la Chabrol, based on George Simenon’s novel of the same name. The film starts passionately with stylized images of two secret lovers, Valentin (Amalric) and Esther (Cléau), whose bodies interweave in a modest room. She bit his lips and now asks if his wife will make questions about it. A moment later, she was asking the inevitable question: ‘are you sure you can be with me for all your life? Won’t you be afraid?’ The story then shifts to an investigation of a murder where Valentin, detained, seems to be the main suspect. From what was he accused? Once the questions are all about his relationship with Esther, we get to know that she is involved. There’s something dangerous and yet attractive in her character. At first the structure baffles us, but progressively we realize that it’s not just the murder of Esther’s husband that’s in question, but also Valentin’s wife, Delphine (Léa Drucker), who also died in sordid circumstances. Director Amalric opts for a steady camera to ‘paint’ the tasteful pictures, assisted by the efficient cinematography of Christophe Beaucarne. Gregoire Hetzel’s score invokes some grief, a feeling transposed to Valentin’s face, especially when confronted with the coldness insanity of his lover in court. Non-thrilling in an unconventional way, the film is also far from being detailed, which in this case is not a bad thing, since when the film ends, its characters remain intriguing.