You’d think that even a brothel might have trouble staying open in the middle of a warzone, but not in Jonathan Strick’s The Balcony. Based on Jean Genet’s play of the same name, guns might be going off outside but inside it’s business as usual for Madame Irma (Shelley Winters) and her girls (though it might not be the business you’d expect from a brothel).
Instead of a lot of bedroom scenes and sex, The Balcony features clients who pay to live out their fantasies. The result is a very theatrical take on sex work and while film adaptations sometimes try to lose their staginess, it’s very easy to tell that The Balcony started out as a play.
Which wouldn’t be so bad if The Balcony kept to one location, but it doesn’t. The entire movie was filmed on a sound stage but characters leave sometimes and, outside the brothel, the rear projection couldn’t be less convincing and completely takes you out of the movie. In his commentary film historian, Tim Lucas, identifies the stock footage as being from the Italian Civil War but the film deliberately never names a country or what war is supposed to be taking place.
It also tries to make the staginess a deliberate choice, by basically saying that everyone acts and real life’s a performance. You’re not supposed to forget you’re watching a movie, but the rear projection is just too atrocious and there’s too much of a disconnect between the stock footage crowds and the cast members who are supposed to be talking to them.
Though it should be noted that the film spends more time with its three johns (or “visitors,” as Miss. Irma insists they be called) than any of its top billed cast, Jeff Corey, Peter Brocco, and Kent Smith are all pros, while Winters brings a Mae West attitude to her madame. Peter Falk gets stuck with some of the longer monologues, which could’ve been tightened, and certain scenes drag on for too long, but then there are other scenes which make sitting through the rest of the film worthwhile, like when one of the john’s dreams is to be a general so to meet that dream Arnette Jens (sister of Seconds’ Salome Jens) plays his horse.
It’s in these one-on-one scenes that The Balcony excels. Ruby Dee in particular gives a scorching performance in her scene with a john who wants to be a judge and her to be his penitent thief, but what’s fascinating about these scenes, too, is seeing how Jens and Dee’s characters are so different with their visitors. If Jens’ Horse is more accommodating, Dee’s Thief is hostile, but since they don’t have any other scenes, it’s hard to know whether that’s their real personalities slipping through or part of the roles their playing for their clients.
Besides the commentary with Lucas, Kino Lorber’s release comes with a new, filmed interview with actress and documentarian, Lee Grant, who has plenty of colorful stories to share about the production, including her experience working with Winters and being cast for the role while on the blacklist. The story of her first time meeting the director is a doozy, too.
The Balcony is available on Blu-Ray and DVD now from Kino Lorber.
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