More than a year after its release in Quebec, the thriller Les chambres rouges is hitting theaters in the United States and the United Kingdom on Friday, buoyed by a wave of favorable reviews.
Pascal Plante’s film, which reveals the talent of actresses Juliette Gariépy and Laurie Babin, was even the critics’ choice of the prestigious New York Times.
“This disturbing legal thriller from Quebec explores the fascination with serial killers and criminals from a seductive new perspective,” writes journalist Beatrice Loayza.
Several other American and British media outlets have praised the film, which will be screened in about sixty theaters in the United States and a dozen in the United Kingdom (more are expected to be added).
“I’m very happy. The New York Times is not nothing,” confides Pascal Plante.
The latter admits that he no longer reads everything that is written about his film, as was the case after its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary festival in July 2023, but acknowledges that positive press reviews can “give a boost” to his feature film.
Snowball effect
Les chambres rouges, renamed Red Rooms for the English-speaking market, is Pascal Plante’s first film to benefit from a theatrical release in the United States. Although it was selected at Cannes, his previous film, Nadia, Butterfly, did not break into the American market.
The filmmaker hopes that the rave reviews will serve his cause in the future.
“There is definitely a snowball effect for future films. People want to see how you will bounce back,” he suggests.
Different films
Even if Les chambres rouges begins his American life, Pascal Plante admits that he has already gone elsewhere. Over the past year, he has been writing his next feature film. After Olympic swimming pools and courthouses, he is completely changing his universe and will present the script for a period film to funding institutions.
“To date, my feature films have always been very different. That makes people surprised, and why not? I like to be surprised by the filmmakers I follow. Presenting a variation of the same film each time can sometimes disenchant viewers.”
However, it involves a lot of research work that has to be done again for each story, but Pascal Plante is not complaining.
“I love research. It is an integral part of my screenwriting work. I try to have the rigor of a documentarian. It is not because we are shooting a fiction that we can depict universes halfway. When a film is well documented, it gives real access to different kinds of people or environments.”
This article is originally published on journaldequebec.com
