GENRE | Noémie Merlant Meets 'The Balconettes' – French Heat

"Only together we can really be ourselves."

The Forge / Nord-Ouest Films

French actress turned filmmaker Noémie Merlant (donning her best Marilyn Monroe garb) tackles rape-revenge horror-comedy in her second feature, The Balconettes (aka Les Femmes au balcon), about three women stuck in a Marseille apartment during a 46° C heatwave when an encounter with their sexy male neighbour sets off a series of unfortunate incidents.

Co-starring Souheila Yacoub and Sanda Codreanu as Merlant's friends alongside Lucas Bravo as their sleazy object of affection across the street, each has a distinct personality heightened by the heat before the craziness begins. There's a shocking quality to just how laissez-faire everything is satirically presented, from the depiction of abuse, assault, gaslighting, nudity, victimhood, sex work and much more.

Merlant, as director with her Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma as co-writer, structures the daring film against any male gaze or sense of desire by recontextualizing the female form as both a sexual object of power and a casually functional body. It all makes for a fun but deranged feminist horror film that's just as wacky as it is gory.

The Balconettes screens at the VIFF Centre starting August 29th.


More | YVArcade / Indiewire / That Shelf