"Red Rooms" (2023/24): Truth Comes Down from Her Tower to Chastise Mankind
Title from the 1896 painting "Truth Coming Out from Her Well Armed with a Whip to Chastise Humanity (La Vérité sortant du puits armée de son martinet pour châtier l'humanité)" by Jean-León Gérôme. She left the web, she left the loom She made three paces thro' the room She saw the water-flower bloom, She saw the helmet and the plume, She look'd down to Camelot. Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror crack'd from side to side; 'The curse is come upon me,' cried The Lady of Shalott. -- Lord Alfred Tennyson, 1832 Summary Set in Montréal, Pascal Plante's 2023/24 "Red Rooms" -- which is a frightening enough title if you know about the dark web -- the film begins with an enigmatic character Kelly-Anne, a woman in her mid to late twenties, attending the trial of a serial murderer and rapist, Ludovic Chevalier, while seemingly having no personal involvement in the case. Chevalier is accused of a variety of heinous crimes surrounding his...