The Balcony

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The Balcony

Shelly Winters, Peter Faulk, Leonard Nemoy. But the rent must have been due. This story had some promise, but it is poorly written and the filing is terrible. The story just wanders around. i could not tell if it was a drama or comedy. It kind of had both.I did think it was an interesting expose of brothels i.e.; those who condemn them secretly patronize them. Spoiler: In the last minute Shelly Winters breaks the third wall and totally ruins it. It was like she was drugged. She just seemed out of it.

This has to be one of the worst films ever made. It is utterly abysmal. It is so bad it makes Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from outer space" seem like a masterpiece. How talented actors like Shelley Winters, Lee Grant and Peter Falk could have become interested in this fiasco beggars belief. How on earth could it have nominated for an Oscar for the photography beggars belief. There must have been some real turkeys that year. Well IMDb insist on 10 lines, so as I have nothing further to add about this turkey here goes, It is rubbish rubbish rubbish. It is stupid stupid stupid. It is appalling, crass, and i'm afraid iv'e run out of adjectives, but believe me it really is RUBBISH

Political futures being decided in brothels. There is a great scene early in the film with an old Caucasian man pretending to be a judge and an African American prostitute, played by Ruby Dee. The scene is both disturbing and sexy. Ruby Dee was amazing. I was like, "Wow, this movie is gonna be awesome!" Well, that was the last of the sexy scenes, and Ruby Dee isn't in the film again. This film left a lot of potential on the table, but it is still worth watching if you get the chance.. RealReview Posting Scoring Criteria: Acting - 1/1 Casting - 1/1 Directing - 1/1 Story - 0.5/1 Writing/Screenplay - 0.5/1 Total Base Score = 4 Modifiers (+ or -) Originality: 1 Total RealReview Rating: 5

I really like Peter Falk and I thought it would be interesting to see Leonard Nimoy in this early role so I checked this one out. I have absolutely no idea what it was about or why it was made. Yes, I know that it had something to do with a revolution and women selling their bodies, but what a strange film. Peter Falk is always a pleasure, but with ridiculously unintelligible dialogue as this it was even hard to watch him. The opening scenes of real footage were very interesting and from there on it was very tough sledding. I'm usually very lenient from the production side, but I just have to comment on the extremely poor "special effects" here. The parts where a background is used to depict scenes as characters are driving around were not only completely unconvincing, they're totally laughable. Two good things which raise this from a 1 to a 2 are the alluring Lee Grant and the mercifully short 84 mins.

Though suffering from extremely poor editing, THE BALCONY is nevertheless a compelling adaption of Jean Genet's inflammatory play. A surrealistic, nightmarish view of a very callous mankind. Shelley Winters is the madam of a brothel (a "house of illusion") in an unknown country with a revolution raging. While the rebels riot and buildings are blown up, Winters and her "actresses" entice and entertain various clients. Joseph Strick, not one to shy away from difficult material (he'd later tackle both ULYSSES & TROPIC OF CANCER), keeps things moving quickly and elicits some great performances from not only Winters, but from Peter Falk, Lee Grant and, as a "Bishop," Jeff Corey. Despite an uneasy mix of stock footage (of a lot of urban carnage) and new material, Strick gets Genet's point across: strip away the costumes and mankind is a mass of powerless imbeciles.

I admit that the movie is a little slow at times, but the plot and the circumstances, and the celebrities in this film are enough to make it worthwhile. The power struggle scene between Leonard Nimoy and Peter Falk seems to be almost homo-erotic. And seeing Shelley Winters kiss another woman. Too much! This movie is one of my favorites!