Kelly-Anne wakes up every morning by the courthouse to secure a seat at the high-profile trial of Ludovic Chevalier, a serial killer she is obsessed with. As days go by, the young woman bonds with another groupie, which momentarily breaks her out of her loneliness. But as the proceedings drag on and she spends more time in the courtroom with the victims’ families, Kelly-Anne finds it increasingly difficult to maintain her psychological balance and retain her morbid fixation with the killer. She will then do whatever it takes to get her hands on the final piece of the puzzle: the missing video of a murdered 13- year-old girl, to whom Kelly-Anne bears a disturbing resemblance.

The Garden Cinema View:

By this point French-Courtroom-Drama seems to be the most prevalent genre in cinema. Well adding to this, albeit with a Québécois twist (perhaps Francophone-courtroom-drama is more accurate), and upping the stakes, is Pascal Plante’s genuinely disturbing Red Rooms. Picking up in similar fashion to Alice Diop’s magnificent Saint Omer, Red Rooms positions us alongside an observer at a trial. Whilst Diop’s film expanded into a compassionate exploration of post-colonial France, Plante slides us incessantly deeper into the most depraved recesses of human action, whilst simultaneously toying with voyeurism and obsession. Including several unique shot sequences, a queasily realistic depiction of online transgression and solitude, this is an impressive and nightmarish suggestive experience.  

Cast:
Juliette Gariépy, Laurie Babin, Élisabeth Locas, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos