FrightFest 2024: ‘Scarlet Blue’ emerges as a stunning visual demonstration

Writer/director Aurélia Mengin hypnotizes with Scarlet Blue, one of the year’s most visually arresting cinematic experiences. Alongside the likes of Strange Darling, Mengin’s second feature electrifies with its undeniable sense of color, imagery, and symbolism. It’s an “all vibes” endurance test, following a young woman’s journey to uncover long-buried memories about an early childhood tragedy. The story itself might be somewhat flimsy, but Mengin and her creative team do understand the importance of illustrating emotions through camera work. There’s no denying the film is a technical achievement, so immersive that you just can’t look away.

Scarlet Blue tells the tale about Alter (played by both Amélie Daure and Anne-Sophie Charron) and her excavation of trauma and how the mind tricks us into believing a fictional version of the past. Her misery hangs on her bones, as she meanders through existence as a cold corpse. She makes frequent visits to a healer named Léandro Lecreulx (Stefano Cassetti), who vows to help her recover lost memories. His mystical practices are unconventional; he chains her up to a table and leads a guided meditation that promises to sink into her psyche and allow fragments to float to the surface.

Alter, who suffers from depression and schizophrenia, hides inside herself. She struggles to open up to others and opts for a reclusive way of life. Even her relationship with her mother Rosy (Patricia Barzyk) hangs by a thread, fraught with tension and long-kept secrets. Rosy loves her daughter, but there’s something not quite right percolating below the surface. As Léandro’s work exposes truths about the past, he encourages Alter to finally confront her mother and get the answers she deserves.

In tandem, Alter meets Chris (Mengin), a blue-haired convenience store clerk. They strike up a quick and hot infatuation with both yearning to fulfill great physical pleasures. Their releases generously feed into emotional revelations, particularly for Alter who learns how to love and be loved without any obligations. A free spirit, Chris invites Alter to relinquish parts of herself to embrace and relish in the present. But it takes time for Alter to expose her heart and let light flood into the empty crevice in her chest.

While it lacks a driving, pounding narrative with actual stakes, Scarlet Blue makes up for it in its visual statements. Stunning oversaturation gives the viewer plenty to dip their eyeballs into, with off-kilter camera angles offering up emotional density to boost Alter’s elastic character arc. Cinematographer Sylvain Rodriguez and Mengin’s creative partnership turns out exquisite visual cues that enrich the viewing. And sometimes, “all vibes” is all you need to extend the emotional floorboard.

Despite its bone-dry narrative, Scarlet Blue demonstrates that Aurélia Mengin has a real vision. Her work shows great promise and positions herself as one to watch. The film, which also contains commentary on sexual identity, redemption, and forgiveness, materializes like a rainbow burst after a torrential late-summer downpour. You become hooked on the premise, and you stay for the remarkable pictorial painting.

Scarlet Blue screened at this summer’s FrightFest.

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