film

“Fiercely funny, but without being over the top. The taste of vinegar and cheese, the ironic treatment of the characters who betray themselves, and the curious sense of a presence within a presence, all give a bitter comedy quality," was the assessment of the UK's Sunday Times on Joseph Strick's The Balcony. This bold 1963 adaptation of Jean Genet's avant-garde play is provocative and surreal, and fully deserves its place as a genuinely unique piece of mid-20th century cinema. 

An exploration of power, identity and illusion, The Balcony is set in a brothel that doubles as a "stage", with the lines between reality and performance thoroughly blurred as clients take up dramatic roles such as a bishop, a judge and a general, as a political revolution rages outside. Dreamlike and fantastical, a parade of excellent performances is led by that of Shelley Winters as Madame Irma, the brothel's proprietor, who embodies power and vulnerability in equal measures.