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Balcony (The)
- Director: Joseph Strick
- Writer: Jean Genet; Ben Maddow
- Producer: Lewis M. Allen; Ben Maddow
CGiii Comment
In 1971, Joseph Strick won an Oscar for his documentary short film: Interviews with My Lai Veterans.
The lesson is: Persistence can certainly pay...if you can't direct actors then, make a documentary.
Here, the direction is stale, stagnant and sterile.
The unimaginative Strick should have directed this as the play it is...perhaps then, he could have retained some of Genet's intentions...why mess around with the dialogue!?!
With Genet's words mutilated and a score by the inaccessible Stravinsky...Strick has produced an ineffectual (and clumsy) transition from stage to screen - with some very strange and strained performances.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Shelley Winters is the madame of a house where customers play out their erotic fantasies, oblivious to a revolution which is sweeping the country. When her old friend, the chief of police (Peter Falk), asks her to impersonate the missing queen in order to reassure the people and halt the revolution, she offers instead three of her customers to play the general, bishop and chief justice, all of whom have died in the revolution.
Cast & Characters
Shelley Winters as Madame Irma;
Peter Falk as Police Chief;
Lee Grant as Carmen;
Peter Brocco as Judge;
Joyce Jameson as Penitent;
Jeff Corey as Bishop;
Arnette Jens as Horse;
Ruby Dee as Thief;
Leonard Nimoy as Roger;
Kent Smith as General