Like Lars von Trier’s films, Red Road plays with viewers’ expectations. Also like the movies of von Trier (who had a hand in this production), Red Road is filled with naturally raw sights and sounds — shot on location and with minimum cleanup. Even the characters’ thick Scottish brogues require subtitles. It’s an engrossing story about a lonely female surveillance-camera operator who spots a blurry image of a man on one of her monitors. As she becomes obsessed with him (to the point where she misses a stabbing at another post), the connection between them slowly reveals itself. But director Andrea Arnold doesn’t give much else away till the end of this taut, thrilling Cannes hit.
Fri., July 6, 9:10 p.m.; Sat., July 7, 5:15 p.m.
This article appears in Jul 4-10, 2007.