The Balcony

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Audience Member The greatest 01 hour: and 24 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member A surreal story of a house where men go to live their fantasies. The fantasies are sexual but involve a complicated setting - each unfolding in a room/ scenario destined to that effect. All movie unfolds in a rather silly manner, ironic but too far fetched to be anything but at tale. A satirical tone over our own morals. Some homosexual notes, which make the movie a bit daring for its time. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member In a brothel known as The Balcony the Madame provides a secure environment where clients can explore their fantasies through role-play. Directed by the award-winning Strick it is based on the play by Jean Genet, produced and published in 1956 as Le Balcon. As Strick explains in the notes with the DVD: “If you read gas meters for a living you can imagine yourself a bishop of the Church in The Balcony, complete with costumes, organ music (sorry!) and a charming female cohort. If you yearn to be a judge and punish impertinent thieves, this is the place you can act it all out. You can even take on the costume and appurtenances of a general of the armies, then exercise army discipline on a lovely woman-horse to your heart’s content.” Outside the bordello a contemporary European city is aflame with a revolution raging. This film is probably the closest that a US prodution has got to reproducing a piece of European theatre accurately and passionately. One forgets the type-casting of Leonard Nimoy (playing a revolutionary leader) and Peter Falk (playing a fascistic Police Chief) which is no mean feat in itself. The film explores complex philosophical issues of authority, status and the relationship between revolutionaries and the establishment. The costumed patrons of the brothel: a General, Lawyer and Bishop are gradually persuaded to adopt the roles in real life, filling the vacuum created by the deaths of the leaders of the City. Their roles are taken out of the bedroom and on to the streets. The film suggests that the distinction between reality and illusion may become blurred. Even the revolutionaries seem to prefer the replacements. The score for this risky, intriguing film is all Igor Stravisnsky and features L’histoire de soldat and his octet for woodwinds. www.countercultureuk.com Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Strange, muddled film, very existential. The question would be, even with talented performers like Winters, Falk and Grant, who was film made for? Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member What a piece of pretentious garbage! The only plus thing for the film is a good job by the actors in the film, especially Lee Grant and Shelley Winters. The writing is dreadful, I have no idea why it was nominated for an Oscar in cinematography, there is nothing good about it. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Balcony

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