Three female friends have a problem to solve when one of them ends up killing the handsome neighbour whose balcony is opposite theirs in the middle of a Marseille heatwave; The Balconettes plays at the London Film Festival 2024.
Written by, directed by, and starring Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) and with the collaboration of Céline Sciamma, The Balconettes is an outrageously exuberant invocation of female friendship and sexuality but also a gory fable about sexual violence, self-defense and revenge which celebrates the female body and leaves no space for the ‘not all men’ argument.
Merlant plays Élise, a lower-tier actress, who has fled her somewhat controlling husband and turns up on the doorstep (or balcony) of friends Nicole (Sanda Codreanu) and Ruby (Souheila Yacoub). Nicole is an aspiring writer, less sexually exuberant than her roommate, and is inspired to compose a romantic story by the sight of her handsome opposite neighbour walking around his apartment shielded by just a towel. Ruby performs sexual activities online for her paying followers and appears to be very happy in her work. But what starts out as a party evening with the neighbour turns nasty, and the women band together in solidarity to solve the resulting issue.
Merlant carefully balances outrageous choices with some very real situations and some scenes which are highly imaginative and uses humour abundantly – the audience I watched with revelled in the gore and laughed loudly throughout. She pulls no punches either in showing the naked female body from all angles – including a gynaecologist’s chair – without judgement and, apart from Ruby earning her living, not in a sexual way.
The opening scene scanning windows and balconies may immediately bring to mind Hitchcock’s Rear Window, but The Balconettes probably owes more to Pedro Almodóvar in its outrage and some of its colour palette. Over the top, it may be, but as a funny, feminist story of girl power, it’s definitely a winner.
The Balconettes plays in the Cult strand of London Film Festival 2024.
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Three female friends have a problem to solve when one of them ends up killing the handsome neighbour whose balcony is opposite theirs in the middle of a Marseille heatwave; The Balconettes plays at the London Film Festival 2024.
Written by, directed by, and starring Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) and with the collaboration of Céline Sciamma, The Balconettes is an outrageously exuberant invocation of female friendship and sexuality but also a gory fable about sexual violence, self-defense and revenge which celebrates the female body and leaves no space for the ‘not all men’ argument.
Merlant plays Élise, a lower-tier actress, who has fled her somewhat controlling husband and turns up on the doorstep (or balcony) of friends Nicole (Sanda Codreanu) and Ruby (Souheila Yacoub). Nicole is an aspiring writer, less sexually exuberant than her roommate, and is inspired to compose a romantic story by the sight of her handsome opposite neighbour walking around his apartment shielded by just a towel. Ruby performs sexual activities online for her paying followers and appears to be very happy in her work. But what starts out as a party evening with the neighbour turns nasty, and the women band together in solidarity to solve the resulting issue.
Merlant carefully balances outrageous choices with some very real situations and some scenes which are highly imaginative and uses humour abundantly – the audience I watched with revelled in the gore and laughed loudly throughout. She pulls no punches either in showing the naked female body from all angles – including a gynaecologist’s chair – without judgement and, apart from Ruby earning her living, not in a sexual way.
The opening scene scanning windows and balconies may immediately bring to mind Hitchcock’s Rear Window, but The Balconettes probably owes more to Pedro Almodóvar in its outrage and some of its colour palette. Over the top, it may be, but as a funny, feminist story of girl power, it’s definitely a winner.
The Balconettes plays in the Cult strand of London Film Festival 2024.
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