Best known for his performances in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Quantum of Solace and Venus in Fur, Mathieu Amalric steps behind the camera to adapt Georges Simenon’s novel of the same name. The story of an extra-marital affair that leads to a double murder investigation, The Blue Room is an immaculately crafted, neo-noir character study, both haunting and illuminating in equal measure. The film begins with the two lovers, Julien and Esther, naked in bed. Immediately there is a disjuncture between sound and image as the audience hears them have sex, but never sees it. Only the eponymous…