Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Les Femmes au Balcon' ('The Balconettes')

When it was announced that Noémie Merlant, one of France’s brightest stars, was writing a film with Céline Sciamma, who directed her in the peerless Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the hearts of arthouse lovers skipped a beat.

Little did they expect that the collaboration, Merlant’s second time behind the camera after 2021’s Mi Iubita Mon Amour, would be the furthest thing from a period romance.

Instead, Les Femmes au Balcon (The Balconettes) is a deliriously full-on genre film that embraces horror, plenty of slapstick and some frequent toilet humour. It's Portrait of Three Ladies on Overdrive, if you will.

Set in Marseilles during a heatwave, it tells the story of three friends who end up in an almighty (and bloody) pickle.

There’s Ruby (Souheila Yacoub), a flamboyant and brazenly sex-positive cam girl who doesn’t see why men are allowed to be topless on balconies and women can’t do the same; Élise (Merlant), an actress who has fled a film shoot and her clingy husband in order to get some peace; and Nicole (Sandra Codreanu), a shy, aspiring writer who lusts after a hunky stranger across the street (Emily in Paris heartthrob Lucas Bravo).

After a balcony-to-balcony flirtation and some car troubles caused by Élise, the women score an invitation to his apartment. The nameless beefcake with abs for days turns out to be a photographer, and Ruby takes the lead – much to the chagrin of Nicole.

However, when Ruby returns to the flat the next morning in a catatonic state and covered in blood, there’s work to be done...

No more shall be spoiled here, but safe to say that Merlant delivers a funny, gory, chaotic film that is 2024’s perfect Midnight Movie. Rather aptly, it premiered in Cannes this year in the Midnight section.

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