{"id":635,"date":"2026-05-25T09:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T09:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=635"},"modified":"2026-05-25T09:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T09:05:13","slug":"red-rocks-review-weirdo-cliff-jumping-kiddies-are-the-focus-of-bruno-dumonts-latest-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=635","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Red Rocks\u2019 Review: Weirdo, Cliff-Jumping Kiddies Are the Focus of Bruno Dumont\u2019s Latest Experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tFrom \u201cThe 400 Blows\u201d to \u201cThe Florida Project,\u201d kids have made fascinating cinematic subjects. Even if they\u2019re working from scripts, there\u2019s always the sense that they\u2019re not entirely acting \u2014 that they can\u2019t help but simply be themselves. The French director Bruno Dumont, a former philosophy professor who broke into Cannes nearly 30 years ago with his stark feature debut \u201cThe Life of Jesus,\u201d has gravitated towards the raw naturalism of youngsters in the past. See \u201cLi\u2019l Quinquin\u201d from 2014, and his musical curios about France\u2019s patron saint \u201cJeannette,\u201d (2017) and \u201cJoan of Arc\u201d (2019), all three of which find a strange, startling profundity in ragtag rugrats, say, debating theology or blankly witnessing acts of violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=633\">Cuba Gooding Jr., Luke Ford, Keith Duffy and Qymira Board Action Thriller \u2018Lotus\u2019 (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tChildhood, for Dumont, isn\u2019t a stage of pure innocence, but a transition period where adult behaviors are tried on by little ones who don\u2019t entirely know what they mean, or what the stakes are. Such is the case with his latest feature, \u201cRed Rocks,\u201d which involves children roughly between the ages of five and seven jumping off cliffs, riding mini motorcycles and partaking in gang warfare \u2014 or its pre-verbal equivalent. Long, static, mostly wordless takes will make these activities seem less eventful than they sound. Patient arthouse viewers, however, will find much to chew on here as a subtly cerebral film about small bodies unsettlingly, hilariously navigating a big, violent world.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tBlending documentary-style observation and a Romeo and Juliet framing device, \u201cRed Rocks\u201d \u2014 which premiered in the Cannes Directors\u2019 Fortnight program \u2014 is scaled-back for Dumont compared to his 2021 Cannes competition entry \u201cFrance,\u201d a media satire starring L\u00e9a Seydoux, and last year\u2019s \u201cThe Empire,\u201d a critically divisive \u201cStar Wars\u201d spoof that premiered at the Berlinale. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tTwitchy, blond tyke G\u00e9o (Kaylon Lancel) and his posse (Louise Podolski and Mohamed Coly) meet another trio of tinies while enjoying their favorite activity: scaling rock formations and taking (seemingly quite dangerous!) plunges into the ocean waters below. One member of the opposing crew, Eva (Kelsie Verdeilles), takes a liking to G\u00e9o, though their romance is hampered by Eva\u2019s other boyfriend B (Alessandro Piquera). Not that romance, here, means anything beyond hand-holding and giggling while awkwardly staring into each other\u2019s eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=631\">\u2018A Girl Unknown\u2019 Review: An Understated and Aching Period Drama Set Against the Quiet Backdrop of China\u2019s One-Child Policy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tCinematographer Carlos Alfonso Corral (co-producer of Roberto Minervini\u2019s \u201cThe Damned\u201d) alternates between fish-bowl closeups of the children\u2019s faces and extreme wide shots of the craggy, coastal landscape. The effect is a bit like watching a tripped-out version of \u201cMister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood\u201d or \u201cThomas &amp; Friends,\u201d the Mediterranean setting \u2014 complete with arched viaducts and train tracks \u2014miniaturized into a kind of fantasy playground for its band of tots to roam around freely. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tA fair share of camera tricks and strategic angles make the kids\u2019 climbing stunts look significantly riskier, though in a masterclass following the premiere, Dumont admitted to a degree of recklessness, choosing to shoot many of the film\u2019s scenes in Italy as opposed to France, because of filming laws in the latter country pertaining to minors. In this Gallic Neverland, there\u2019s not a safety helmet (or nervous parent) in sight, which admittedly adds to the film\u2019s feral energy. Their twiggy legs and bony frames exposed in bathing suits, the kids do indeed look extra vulnerable within the film\u2019s savage landscape. That\u2019s precisely Dumont\u2019s intention \u2014 freedom is fun <em>and <\/em>scary \u2014 but the choice is sure to raise eyebrows among critics of the director, who has historically been called out for his work with nonprofessional actors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe star-crossed lovers drama is mostly a justification to watch the kids play and pull weird and mesmerizing expressions, which turns repetitive over the film\u2019s slim 90-minute runtime. Still, there\u2019s amusement and electricity in their physicalities and wry antics. Working, again, at the boundary between the sublime and the silly, Dumont nevertheless manages to stake out new territory with this alien portrait of childhood. This may be something of a transitional work for a director who tends to shape-shift, but you\u2019ve got to hand it to a guy unafraid to experiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=629\">\u2018De Gaulle: R\u00e9sistance\u2019 Review: Antonin Baudry\u2019s Large-Scale Epic is a Conventional yet Consistently Engaging Wartime Biopic<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>\n<p>\t\t\u2018Red Rocks\u2019 Review: Weirdo, Cliff-Jumping Kiddies Are the Focus of Bruno Dumont\u2019s Latest Experiment<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<h2>\n<p>\t\tReviewed at Cannes Film Festival. May 27, 2026.\u00a0Running time: 90 MIN. (Original title: &#8220;Les Roches Rouges&#8221;)<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<strong>Production:<\/strong><br \/>\n(France-Belgium-Italy-Portugal-Spain) A Rosa Filmes production in co-production with Luxbox, Nightswim, Andergraun Films, Tessalit Productions, Pulpa Film LLC, Sula Films, Denapa. (World sales: Luxbox, Paris.) Producers: Joaquim Sapinho, Marta Alves, Fiorella Moretti. Executive producers: Jose Manuel Carrera Panizo, Beatriz E. Herrera Bours, Charles Drouin, Montse Triola, Dan Wechsler, Jamal Zeinal-Zade, Dmitry Saltykovsky, Irina Sosnovaya, Anton Kurilchik. Co-producers: Ines Vasiljevi\u0107, Stefano Sardo, Albert Serra, Montse Triola,Jean Br\u00e9hat, Alejandro Sugich, Roberto Minervini, Denise Ping Lee.\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Crew:<\/strong><br \/>\nDirector, screenplay, editor: Bruno Dumont. Camera: Carlos Alfonso Corral. Music: Laia Torrents Carulla.\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>With:<\/strong><br \/>\nKaylon Lancel, Kelsie Verdeilles, Louise Podolski, Mohamed Coly, Alessandro Piquera, Meryl Pires. (French dialogue) \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bruno Dumont&#8217;s quasi-documentary hybrid &#8216;Red Rocks&#8217; sees rival gangs of tots run wild and play Romeo and Juliet in the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[656,3,657],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-bruno-dumont","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-red-rocks"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Red Rocks\u2019 Review: Weirdo, Cliff-Jumping Kiddies Are the Focus of Bruno Dumont\u2019s Latest Experiment - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=635\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Red Rocks\u2019 Review: Weirdo, Cliff-Jumping Kiddies Are the Focus of Bruno Dumont\u2019s Latest Experiment - 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