Euronews Culture sits down with French actress-director Noémie Merlant to talk about her new directorial effort ‘Les femmes au balcon’ (‘The Balconettes’), the state of #MeToo in the French film industry, the ‘feminist’ label, and how serious topics should be explored via comedy and genre cinema.
French actress-writer-director Noémie Merlant is one of Europe’s greatest stars.
Bold statement, but since her breakout role in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, she’s proven time and time again that she can command the screen like few of her generation.
From Zoé Wittock’s bold drama Jumbo to Bess Wohl psychological horror thriller Baby Ruby, via Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District and her César-winning turn in Louis Garrel’s The Innocent in 2022, the 36-year-old has ensured that her filmography has been characterised by bold, engaged and audacious choices.
Following her role in Todd Field’s Tár, which won her further international recognition, Merlant has been busy. This year saw Merlant star in Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, the update of the original 70s erotic film, as well as step behind the camera for a second time with her Cannes-debuting Les femmes au balcon (The Balconettes).
Set in Marseille during a heatwave, the film mixes comedy and horror to create a socially-engaged hybrid that makes for the perfect Midnight Movie – a deliriously entertaining romp with teeth.
Merlant directs and stars alongside Souheila Yacoub and Sandra Codreanu as flatmates who are pushed to the extreme when a late-night drink with an attractive neighbour (Emily in Paris’ Lucas Bravo) takes a very bloody turn.
It’s a tale of friendship, sisterhood, and a missile anchored in the #MeToo movement that speaks to the ills of society – especially when it comes to the abuse women face on a daily basis.
The film hits theatres this week and Euronews Culture sat down with Merlant to discuss her sophomore effort as a director, as well as her career, the current state of play when it comes to representation on screen, as well as her future plans.
Euronews Culture: Can you tell me how The Balconettes came about?
Noémie Merlant: About four or five years ago, I left everything behind and went to live with friends, with Sanda Codreanu who plays Nicole in the film, because I couldn’t cope any more. I felt suffocated – in my relationship and in everything.
With the # MeToo movement, I was starting to become aware of a lot of things and it all came flooding back. I had a traumatic experience with a photographer when I’d just started modeling at the age of 17, something I have talked about in the press. So, I took refuge with my friends and that’s when, for the first time, my mind and body relaxed. Because there were no stares, no expectations, no having to please anyone… And there was listening, too.
We started talking about traumas – some of which I talk about in the film. I’d never been so much myself, or so free. There was a release and that’s when I came up with the idea of making The Balconettes and putting these things back into the film in an emotional way. It came out of a need to externalise, to share, to catharise – I don’t know if that last one is even a word! (Laughs)
I’ve seen the film twice now and what stands out is how you use genre film codes to tell this story – especially when it comes to the horror aspects. The opening shot feels like a callback to Rear Window, there are elements of the rape revenge subgenre, as well as some gory moments. It strengthens the fact that horror and genre cinema are mighty useful tools when it comes to addressing and critiquing certain aspects of current society.
Completely. I’m a fan of genre cinema too, and I think that’s precisely what makes me love genre cinema. It’s a place that allows you to do anything, as well as one of the genres that allows itself to even verge on the ridiculous and the tasteless. It’s very liberating and shows that you’re not necessarily doing this to please, in the slightly bourgeois sense of the word. It allows you to create a rollercoaster ride, to have reactions, to get things out and share things. There’s something simpler and very sincere about genre cinema. For me, the idea of being able to go so far, to push the envelope and be able to have fun and be entitled to horror, vulgarity, bad taste – that’s the best thing about the form. It allows a place for the film’s underlying theme, which is the liberation of women. I don’t think there’s any other genre that’s a better fit. At least that’s my opinion!
As you say, the film is about liberation, as well as the abuse women are subjected to. You use so much humour and slapstick in this film. Is comedy still the best way of addressing serious topics in your opinion?
I think so, yes. But then, that’s what works for me. I personally don’t know how to talk about serious things without humour. It’s almost automatic. It’s a defence mechanism, a way of distancing myself, and it allows me to talk about things with more depth while keeping my head above water. There’s something about laughter that relaxes you and allows you to talk about these serious subjects and therefore encourages more dialogue and awareness. And allowing yourself to make fun of your attackers is a powerful weapon.
You co-wrote this film with Céline Sciamma, who directed you in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. How was it working with her again and what did she bring to The Balconettes?
I was very happy and very flattered when I started working with her on this film because we’ve been friends since Portrait, and I didn’t want to ask her to help me at first. I didn’t want this to encroach on our friendship. But halfway through my two years of writing, Céline asked me, ‘Why don’t you get me to read it and help you?’ And so we started working together, and it was very fluid. She doesn’t write genre films, but she loves them, and she agreed that this was a story that needed to be told with humour. I had ideas I didn’t know what to do with at times, and she always helped me to make choices I was having trouble making.
Ever since the film’s debut in Cannes earlier this year, there’s been a frequent descriptive when talking about The Balconettes: it’s a “feminist film.” I get why, but after a while it started to grate, as we rarely talk about ‘masculinist films’…
Thank you for saying that – it’s the first time someone has shared that with me, and it’s something I’ve thought about a lot too. As soon as it touches the feminine, it becomes something particular, something specific. Whereas the masculine would be universal. And yet, there are just as many women on earth, if not more, and when we watch Westerns, war films – everything from Once Upon A Time In America to Fight Club, and as women we don’t necessarily recognise ourselves in the characters… But we love these films! We try to understand the men, to live that moment with them, to embark on a journey alongside them. I don’t say to myself ‘Oh, no, this is a film just for guys and it’s a masculinist film.’ So it’s true that I dare to hope that we can say the same thing about a film where it’s told by women and about women. It’s not a foregone conclusion, however, and there’s still a long way to go…
You play with conventions through the characters in The Balconettes. When we meet the three friends, they can be immediately and broadly identified as the nerd, the sexually liberated one… You play the drama queen, showing up looking like Marilyn Monroe… Was the aim to subvert these feminine archetypes by initially leaning into them?
Yes, but it’s worth remembering that we’re in the codes of absurdist comedy, so all the characters are very branded – including the male characters, who are all aggressors. The characters are not necessarily caricatures, but they’re all pushed to an extreme. I wanted to have fun with that, and I wanted the three friends to be very different and at the same time, for the audience to understand why they are friends. It’s because, despite everything, they’re all in some form of creation. They all have something very artistic in them.
The character of Ruby is a camgirl, but she uses her body in an artistic way – every day, she changes, has a different make up routine, not to please others but to express her emotions and moods. She’s very sexually liberated, she likes sex and doesn’t hide it. She likes to be topless on a balcony, much like men can be when it’s hot outside, because for her, a woman’s torso is no different from a man’s. She puts across the idea that a man’s torso can be just as exciting as a woman’s. People often say that it’s not the same thing, that breasts are attractive and sexual. But I’m sorry, a man’s chest for a straight woman is also incredibly sexy.
The character of Ruby is also important because I wanted to use the example of the imperfect victim. In real life, she wouldn’t be believed. People would say “She’s a camgirl”, “she’s a prostitute”, “she was looking for it”… And that has got nothing to do with it.
For me, to show these three very different women was a wasn’t to say that there aren’t a multitude of women, but to break them free in a way. For example, my character shows up looking, as you said, like Marilyn Monroe. It was a way of freeing Marilyn, who is the absolute reference of this image created by men for men. Her life had been stolen in a way, and so to reincarnate her, to get her back with her girlfriends, to make her fart… It was a way for me to show that a woman is not just a mysterious fantasy. A woman is actually a flesh-and-blood human being, organic and alive.
You mention farting, which harks back to comedy being a liberating force that can be cathartic. The same could be said about vulgarity, which is also often funny.
Exactly. When it comes to the farting, for instance, it’s something that isn’t often shown with women. There’s something very sincere in vulgarity, something very true and intimate, and I wanted to give my characters permission to be vulgar. Both humor and vulgarity are ways of reappropriating our stories.
There’s another element I wanted to talk about, which is the ghosts in the film. I have to admit that the first time I saw The Balconettes, I wasn’t sure about this. It’s only the second time that it struck me that the ghosts needed to appear to give victims of abuse something they rarely get: the opportunity to confront their aggressors and get an apology.
A confession, more importantly. It’s the confession that I miss and that’s why I needed to bring back the aggressors as ghosts. The ghosts allowed me to work on this notion of trauma, the fact it remains present when there’s a rape. There’s an aftermath, something that haunts, that continues to haunt. As for confessions, you saw it recently with the Gisèle Pelicot case in France, which was a difficult echo when I rewatched my film. All these men that are asked whether they raped her, and they reply “Oh no, I did nothing, it’s not me…” You realise what’s happening, the problem with confessing and saying: “Yes, I’ve raped, I’ve assaulted.” It never happens, and if it does, it’s barely in a handful of cases. It’s always the victim’s fault in one way or another.
Regarding the #MeToo movement in France, it’s a slow reckoning…
Very slow.
Nevertheless, do you see things evolving for the better?
There’s still denial. There’s still resistance. But I’m hopeful because I can see that things are changing. Importantly, there’s more dialogue between men and women, and more men are joining the cause in some way. There’s nothing better than that, because the only way forward is together. Both in the film world and in life. However, it is true, as we know from history, that every time there’s been a breakthrough, there’s been a backlash. We’ve seen this happen in certain countries, so we have to remain vigilant. Like I said, there are still some people who resist. There are actions on film sets and in real life where you get the impression that there are certain people who have never heard about the #MeToo movement. I try to keep positive, but once again, it’s not a done deal.
The character of Nicole is also very interesting in The Balconettes, as at one point she says, when talking about her writing, that she wants to explore storytelling not through conflict and resolution, but through desire. Is this something that you feel strongly about?
Yes, and it’s something I realised when I was working on Portrait with Céline. The notion of conflict is supposed to be exciting. People say that if there’s no conflict, there’s no story. It’s also said that if there’s no conflict, there’s no love story either. Because we believe that passionate stories, the ones where there is conflict, are what love stories are all about. The same goes for the way we work. The director will say that it’s necessary to go through conflict and that interesting things will decry from shaking you as an actress. We’ve taken it as an absolute truth that without conflict, it’s boring. And in fact, I’m not sure about that.
I’ve experienced both. For example, in a romantic relationship, I thought that since that was what you saw in romantic films, things needed to be tulmutuous and dramatic. And in real life, I prefer kindness, gentleness and respect. That can seem boring, but in fact it’s not. It’s very exciting. Kindness is incredibly exciting.
And when it comes to work, when there’s collaboration and you work with performers without conflict, there are so many more surprising and exciting things that come from that. If an actor feels confident and secure, they will go much further and offer so much more. And I think it’s the same for everything, including storytelling.
The theme of desire is also a recurring one in your career. Whether it’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Emmanuelle this year, or the film Jumbo, to name but a few, these films deal with desire and sexuality in their various permutations. Is this a determining factor when choosing your projects?
Yes, because I think there’s a lot to explore in terms of female desire. Very little has been done over time, and when it comes to film about female desire and sex, there’s still a lot to do and explore. It’s a personal quest of mine to explore my desires. So, I think that subconsciously and consciously, I’m connecting with directors who want to talk about this.
I recently rewatched your first film as a director, the short film Je Suis #UneBiche, which denounces the excessive use of social media for young people and the abuse that can take place online. Considering the current exodus from X and the documented abuse that is rife on social media, the film feels as relevant as it did in 2017.
Thank you for saying so. It’s an ongoing conversation and an important one. I’m not on all the networks, personally, but I’m on some as it’s important for my work. It’s like everything else – there are some very good things that decry from social media, like the rise of the #MeToo movement for example. It can give rise to other movements too, as well as provide a platform for people who don’t have space in life, in this society, who are silenced. It can also be a place where people can express themselves and have an impact on their society to change it.
So there are some very beautiful things happening on networks. But like anything else, it can bring out the worst in people, including harassment. Whenever something wonderful is born, there’s always the dark side that emerges at the same time. I think it’s been like that since the dawn of time, and social networks are no different. In other words, they haven’t changed the way people function, it’s just that the framework that hosts people’s words is bigger. But people’s reactions are the same, it’s always been like that.
The Balconettes is your second feature after Mi Iubita, Mon Amour. After these two experiences, what are the advantages and disadvantages of being in front of and behind the camera at the same time?
It’s true that there are both advantages and disadvantages. But I like acting and I like directing, so it works for me! If I write a role that I can play because of my age or because I’m drawing inspiration from myself, I think it’s simpler because it’s a bit like playing myself. It also saves me and others time if I can do it. For example, there are some pretty complicated scenes, like the one with the gynaecologist in The Balconettes. I couldn’t have asked an actress to do that, so I wanted to do it myself. So I prepped and drew everything up beforehand. I worked a lot on the staging… Everything was very precise, and I also worked on all my scenes ahead of time. This allowed me to switch from one role to the other more easily during the shoot.
A lot of the films you’ve starred in have debuted at major European film festivals, which have made some progress with regards to representation but are still falling short when it comes to programming films directed by women in Competition slots. Several years ago, the likes of Berlin, Cannes and Venice all signed the 50/50 by 2020 parity pledge and they’re not there yet – despite the Berlinale doing better than most. Do you think that quotas should be imposed so things can evolve and not stagnate?
It’s an interesting and important question, and I don’t know whether I have the answer right here on the spot. I do think that there are a lot of women with imposter syndrome who don’t dare take the first step of becoming directors. As a result, there’s a shortage of them because there isn’t enough space for them. And maybe that’s why we have to force the issue in some way, to redress the balance, to create a more egalitarian space so that it can be more fluid in the future – less linked to gender and more closely linked to the qualities of the work. But for that to happen, there might need to be a momentary period when quotas are imposed, because the past shows us that there has been too much space that has been denied for women to express themselves.
Last year, Euronews Culture embarked the rather daunting task of picking the best European Films of the 21st Century. There was some debate for some films’ rankings, but everyone was unanimous for giving the top spot to Portrait of a Lady on Fire. I’ve also seen how much people have reacted to this film, and how fans still come up to you with artwork they’ve made about the film. What is it about Portrait in your opinion that continues to resonate so deeply with audiences?
That’s amazing that you voted it to the top spot! It’s a magic film, without a doubt. It’s got all the ingredients and it’s new, too. It’s a film that a lot of people were missing, I think. When it was released, it appeared as if this love story between two women resonated, with this dynamic of respect and love and collaboration. Because these two women create a work of art together. It’s an affirmation of homosexuality, an affirmation of the desire to create and collaborate, and how to build that collaboration in a spirit of respect… It’s difficult to explain why it resonates so much, but the people who come to see me often tell me that that Portrait has changed their life. That’s the phrase that comes up all the time: ‘Portrait changed my life’.
You’ve had a very busy year with Lee, starring Kate Wislet, Emmanuelle and The Balconettes. We’re seeing you in Pietro Marcello’s Duse next, right?
Yes, and I speak Italian in it, so I can’t wait to see it because I’m not Italian and I worked as hard as I could on that! It’s about the actress Eleonora Duse, played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. I play her daughter Enrichetta, and it was a magnificent shoot in Venice and Rome. And then I have two upcoming shoots in France and abroad. I can’t tell you what those are, not when you’re recording this conversation! And I’m writing my next film.
I was going to ask you whether you were planning a new one…
Yes, I’m finishing the first draft of the scenario.
Can I ask you what it’s about?
Oh, I can tell you that! I’m adapting a novel called “Sporus”, which was written 25 years ago. It’s a historical novel set under Nero. It’s a queer and punk peplum, so it’s very ambitious!
A queer and punk peplum? I’m sold.
I’m glad! (Laughs) I don’t know if I’ll manage to find the money to do it, but I’m going to try because I’ve fallen in love with this book, which is based on a true story, and all I want to do is put it on the screen and share it. But it’s an expensive film, a sword-and-sandal that’s large in scope, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it. So we’ll see!
The Balconettes hits theatres this week – stay tuned for our Film of the Week review on Friday.
