Night, city lights, a girl runs desperately down a street like being chased. A nice 90’s movies mood with well done travelling and a well chosen street. Good actors too; despite some of them not seeming professional they are all doing a good job.
Cinematography is very good too and there is a particular attention for the locations and overall mood of the film which is very appropriate to the subject and delivers the right emotion to the public.
Director Sarah Bellin looks like she has achieved her vision in practice because the film has a unique and intense cinematic treatment: starting with the well chosen faces and ending with the locations, direction and colour grading.
The running will make her meet a friendly woman who might look like she is trying to help. But while accepting the friendly woman’s invitation the girl’s mobile rings, forcing her to deal with a major choice: to run back from where she started in the first place or to carry forward with the invitation. In the end it seems like the girl is only being chased by her own inner conflicts.
There is a little theme of revenge that you can spot in the film, revenge on the inability to appreciate beauty or the lack of chance of enjoying and experiencing the feeling of intense appreciation, a ‘frustration’ that the girl is being driven by. This ‘frustration’ nuanced by the director with a little innocence of the girl’s character (must be a combination between her physical looks and her vague hesitating nature) points out to the fragility and danger of easily depraving the ‘halfbaked’ temper of the youth.
One can understand ‘Redlight District Bar‘ both as a metaphor and a narrative story with an open ending. If you are curious enough to take a peak you will surely experience something pretty original here.
TMFF RATING:
