Mathieu Amalric is one of my favorite actors and his presence on the credits of a movie is reason enough to want to see him. From time to time he is also behind the camera as a film director. This is the case with ‘La chambre bleue‘ (‘The Blue Room‘) from 2014. Amalric proves that he is an interesting and versatile filmmaker, playing the lead role, directing and also co-writing the script together with Stéphanie Cléau who also is his partner on the screen. This is the adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon – a love story combined with a psychological thriller in which for quite some time the main question is not ‘who committed the crime?’ but ‘who is the victim?’
The setting of the stiry reminded me of the films of Claude Chabrol. We are in a provincial town where almost everyone knows almost everyone, an oppressive space where passions are bubbling and love is never too far from crime. The opening scene of the film shows Julien and Esther in a steamy love scene in a blue-walled room in a small hotel. In the next scene we see Julien arrested, interrogated, questioned about his life and his relationship with Delphine. We do not know for a long time why he is arrested and suspected. The narrative will advance on two parallel planes, the testimonies from the investigation foreshadowing flashbacks through which Julien tells his version. But what happened? We, the viewers, will find out gradually, receiving with each flashback a piece of a puzzle that is not fully completed even after the last scene. The liaison was clandestine. Julien, a successful agricultural machinery dealer, was happily married to Delphine, with whom he had a daughter. Esther, the town pharmacist, is less happily married to a sickly man much older than her. The two lovers had superficially known each other in their teens and their lives had diverged for many years. At the reunion, passion triggers, especially at Esther’s initiative. Does Julien love her enough to leave his wife and family? Things get complicated when Esther decides to test the man’s love. Corpses also appear. Are these crimes? natural deaths? accidents?
Mathieu Amalric is an actor capable of playing many roles, but he seems to be best suited to those in which he embodies men in love, undecided, about to lose control of their lives due to the dilemmas of love. That’s exactly the role he plays here. He probably chose to make this film just for this role. Stéphanie Cléau, a screenwriter and actress with surprisingly few screen appearances, is a perfect partner, building with Amalric an adulterous couple in which the woman tries to take control of the man’s destiny. Léa Drucker, another actress I really like, doesn’t get enough time to develop her role. However, I would not want to criticize the film’s duration. With less than 80 minutes of projection, ‘La chambre bleue‘ is perfectly dosed and excellently paced. In an era dominated by lavish 150-minute-plus movie productions, this minimalist approach manages to prove that an interesting and complex story can be built in fewer minutes, where there is focus and talent. The cinematography uses a narrow screen format, befitting the feeling of claustrophobia on which the tension is based. The knock-out finish is memorable. There aren’t many reasons to avoid this movie.