Red Rooms

Red Rooms
Red Rooms

When Obsession Crosses Into Becoming A Calling: An Analysis of Nightcrawler and Red Rooms

Dan Gilroy’s highly rated thriller Nightcrawler features Jake Gyllenhaal ‘s Louis Bloom likes to take the concept of becoming the story a bit too far. However, his outwardly disregard to any form of ethical behavior makes this whole adventure that could have been an ambitious journey of achieving goals more of a heartbreaking degeneration into savagery. Bloom lurks in the dimness of Angeles with a single focus, to be at the site of strong armed killings at the very earliest. There is a point where he crosses the boundary of being an onlooker who seeks to capture provoking footage to being an actor and that lust for shocking footages makes it appear that he is conceiving himself to be a heroine of sorts.

The dark and strange romance with crime and corruption also features in Pascal Plante’s Red Rooms (Les chambres rouges) but from a slightly different perspective. Instead of aiming at being the pièce de resistance, Red Rooms focuses on the audience and who relish in watching evil over the violent actions that were perpetrated.

The Enchantment of the Unallowed

In Red Rooms, the main narrative follows Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy), a supermodel with an interesting appeal who is deeply interested in the trial of Chevalier ludov, a man who is on trial for dog wrestling with three teenage girls. Out of these two murders, one had already been filmed and released out of dark web, while the third mystery is being constantly hinted at throughout the proceedings. As an observer, it’s actually rather disturbing how much Kelly-Anne fixates on the court hearing. This is consideration both inside and outside of the court room Why would someone like her even get invested in such monstrosity?

Father, Drake, Max dare Plante’s direction re imagines the legal drama by removing the ostentatious theatrics that tend to follow the genre. Instead, in Red Rooms, the visuals are almost industrial in their cold sterility featuring simple red walls which leaves one feeling rather comfortable and calm — a fitting representation of constant dehumanization that happens while a trial is turned into a show for the audience’s consumption.

A Game of Masks

Kelly-Anne’s interest in the trial seems to be more than mere curiosity. With the passing of days, she finds herself entranced by a particular obsession. We meet Clementine (Laurie Babin), a savvy young woman with in need of shelter who finds solace in the courthouse steps. Chevallier’s narrative piques the interest of Clementine however, her reasoning remains muddled. The blurring of loyalties that Kelly-Anne has hired through her free will begins to disintegrate the moment she befriend the duo of women.

Kelly-Anne leads a somewhat of a double life — an introvert who exists in both the digital and physical realms. Once disconnected, she goes off to a high tech, modern smart home where the AI sits. Once she is connected, she goes off to the virtual realms as she assumes to be a poker extraordinaire named “LadyOfShalott”. The text serves to aid in depicting Kelly-Anne’s character alongside her literary inspiration as a recluse who puts herself in a perilous world. Instead of merely watching over Chevallier’s case, she places herself alongside him in a dark corner of the internet and time.

A Courtroom as a Battleground for Morality

The emotional potency dictating courtroom scenes in Red Rooms is uncharacteristically moderate; treating the lawsuit as a matter of pure endurance instead of a dramatic rivalry. Prosecution and defense emerge to give their thoughts, but more often, they listen; The reports themselves, though, can’t wait for every day’s developments and treat such events as wild gossip. Journalists shove Kate-Anne and other participants questions they didn’t even want to know the answers to: “Is the defendant chilly today, still sorry for himself or has that changed too? And who do you think is he? A monster or some genius in disguise?”

Throughout the film, he constantly is portrayed as a dark figure’s character, whose deeds are constantly interpreted and reconstructed as seen by the public. The narrative transcends not only once regarding justice, but society due to its citizens. The increasing pursuit of Chevallier’s humanity more bothersome questions: Does Kelly-Anne defend him as an act of sympathy, of interest or of something even more disturbing?

The Alluring Voice of the Dark Web

It is tough to be bafflingly naive about the gravity of the tempts that surround a trial, Kelly-Anne’s dive into the deep web is on the coming of events that lead to a spontaneous disintegration of faith. True crime documentaries and amateur detectives seem to be overemphasising her story when treating it as a cautionary tale regarding the appeal of the proximity to darkness.

The longer she stays in the situation, the more she runs the risk of being a part of the very show she once only watched.

By the film’s intense climax, Kelly-Anne’s fixation deteriorates her career and puts a strain on her relationship with Clementine. Plante skillfully raises the stakes, displaying the effect on a guy whose brain was consumed by a single thought such as Cobb’s metaphor in Inception about an idea being a “dangerous parasite”.

Lingering Dread

Red Rooms does not resolve problems easily hence it allows viewers face the harsh reality that evil is most often gloatingly vilified under the pretext of moral interest. The bare walls of the courtroom and the crimson colors that stained the film also show the terrible blackhole that occupies the space between justice and enjoyment.

Both Nightcrawler and Red Rooms deal with a grave danger – the danger of losing ourselves in dark places that we pretend to only film or watch. Louis Bloom had a story of unyielding zeal and scheming, while Kelly-Anne has a story of good intentions and obsession. But in both instances, the splitting of the witness and the participant occurs, leaving behind a painful question – so when you have gone down the rabbit hole, is there ever coming back?

Suggested Visuals:

Louis Bloom’s gaze: A terrifying close-up of Gyllenhaal’s wide-eyed gaze as he films at a crime scene.

The courtroom – sterile and cold accentuated by its bright red colour and a white fixture mark the defining characteristics of the Red Rooms Law Court.
Kelley-Anne Poker screen appears in almost dark lighting where her virtual poker table states her username ‘LadyOfShalott’.
Kelly-Anne is envisioned at the core of rotating ghostly faces amidst code graphics of dark web.
Both clips also highlight the subtle fear of losing any sense of morality, when in pursuit of comprehending evil in others. What is worse, is not the act of witnessing the horror but what has it made us willing to do.

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