‘The Balconettes’ Review: A Dark Comedy That Flips The Meaning Of Horror | Cannes 2024

There have been many films that talk about violence against women; some fail at it, and some succeed. The Balconettes is another one of these films that spreads the same message but in a different and unique way. Blending both comedy and horror to tell the story of abuse against women. It’s not the perfect film, but it does a good enough job of getting its message across. 

The Balconettes follows Nicole (Sanda Codreanu), Ruby (Souhelia Yacoub), and Elise (Noémie Merlant), three friends who stay in a Marseille apartment during a heat wave. During their lovely get-together, an unexpected death traps them in a terrifying predicament. 

The film starts off with a death, but it’s not the death that sets its story off; it is one that becomes rather relevant later in the plot, in a way that’s very smart and didn’t have me catching on until they made it rather obvious. The death comes from a wife who seems to be killing her abuser rightfully, and she does so by sitting on his face and suffocating him. This right here sets the tone, but it’s not a tone that seems to work all the time, and unfortunately, at certain moments, I only wish it wasn’t filled with humour. 

In addition, there’s a scene later in the film where we watch a character get sexually assaulted. It’s a hard scene to watch as she refuses to have sex, only wanting a warm hug from her husband, who unfortunately takes advantage of her soon after. This scene focuses on the character’s trauma through close-ups of her face, showing us not only the horror she’s going through but also making us feel it. This scene is soon followed by the aftermath of the sexual assault, and it’s a scene that’s supposed to make you laugh, and for the majority of the people in my screening, it did, but I couldn’t find myself laughing after just witnessing almost five minutes of pure horror. 

The comedy in the film is great and handled well in the first 30–40 minutes of the film. There are even some hilarious moments later on, but it’s moments like those during the film where I just feel like the humour should’ve been saved for a later moment. It’s moments like when Ruby is explaining consent to a rude and immature shopkeeper that I wish we got more of throughout this film.

What The Balconettes does best is that instead of being your generic horror film, like making it a slasher or having some spooky, generic mystery intertwined into the story, it takes the horror genre and its tropes and uses them to discuss this feminist message. 

All three women deliver an amazing performance, and what really sells it is that they all have good facial expressions that depict the horror and trauma that they go through in the film. It helps with the countless close-ups that are used in the film to show their emotions, which they express without fail every time. The standout performance comes from Souhelia Yacoub, who effortlessly transitions from this woman full of so much love for herself and everyone to a woman who has had enough and has lost all that love after being abused. It’s a beautiful performance, and while she’s not the only character to suffer in this film, she steals the spotlight with how well she handles and understands her character. 

The Balconettes is a film with a profound feminist message that makes a good attempt at blending comedy with its serious topics. While at times the comedic timing can seem poor, it’s thankfully only a few times where this can be seen as an issue. Horror is used as a smart and creative way to handle topics such as rape, harassment, abuse, and abortion really well, and at no point does it feel like it’s trying to undermine these topics, as Noémie Merlant doesn’t shy away from showing the truth of it all on screen. 

The Balconettes will be releasing in theaters soon.