A Balcony in Limoges Review
A Balcony in Limoges / Un balcon à Limoges (2025) Film Review from the 78th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Jérôme Reybaud and starring Fabienne Babe, Anne-Lise Heimburger, Antonin Battendier, Patrice Gallet and Lorena Celine.
Jérôme Reybaud creates some interesting situations and gives them a realistic edge followed by a shocking resolve in the dark film, A Balcony in Limoges. With a simple story line and complex characters, A Balcony in Limoges feels true to life in many instances and although its ultimately harrowing ending is a bit disturbing considering the earlier events, there’s no denying the power of the intensity of the film’s pitch black premise.
This picture revolves around a woman named Gladys (Fabienne Babe) who is in her fifties and has a lot of unresolved “issues.” Gladys is found in her car one day with vomit on the window by an old friend from school, an assistant nurse named Eugénie (Anne-Lise Heimburger). Eugénie tries to help Gladys not knowing who she is at first. Then, when they recognize each other, Gladys reveals she lives in her car most of the time while accepting help from a friend or two in town now and then.
Eugénie has the goodwill to want to help Gladys given her unusual situation and the two begin to bond. Eugénie’s son (Antonin Battendier) becomes an unwilling participant in the strange connection between Gladys and Eugénie. Men come over Eugénie’s place and the two women dance and set themselves free as Eugénie begins to understand how Gladys could live the lifestyle she has grown accustomed to. However, Eugénie offers Gladys help in the form of a social worker and an attempt to get her some kind of welfare, but Gladys refuses. Gladys wants to live her carefree existence which has its pluses and minuses. When Eugénie suggests that Gladys get a job, the plot is further complicated.
By the time the film arrives at a scene with Eugénie packing up a trash bag or two, we get to see where she really stands on the matter of friendship and helping others. Eugénie supposedly cares a bit about Gladys, but the plot becomes something of a competition between the two characters. Perhaps, Eugénie made out better in life, but Gladys is breaking the rules of the system which frustrates Eugénie immensely. Let’s not mention the unusual bond formed between Eugénie’s son and Gladys. The titular balcony has much significance to the story line, but I’ll leave you to discover what, exactly, happens when Eugénie decides to take matters into her own hands on that very balcony.
Fabienne Babe is believable in every nuance of her difficult performance. Though one may see exaggerations in the characterization, the fact that Gladys has been able to get away with certain freedoms makes her intriguing as a character. Those exaggerations become more realistic as the plot goes on and we learn some of the circumstances behind the actions she’s taken in terms of how (and why) she has chosen to live her life. The interaction between Babe and Anne-Lise Heimburger is so volatile, you could cut the tension with a knife. You won’t know if Heimburger’s character is to be trusted or not and the actress is certainly up to the challenge of making the audience unable to predict which way she’ll turn next.
A Balcony in Limoges offers frightening propositions in terms of the way it portrays supposed one-time friends. Maybe, they were always just acquaintances, but no good deed goes unpunished and then some in this frighteningly bleak morality tale. Watching Heimburger tossing around trash bags as her ticket to some kind of personal freedom is fascinating, but much more disturbing when you learn what the contents of those bags are.
This movie is one of the more compelling films about a person trying to help someone “less fortunate” because there’s no candy coating here, just a disturbing glimpse inside a very dark side of the human condition. My two criticisms are the film’s abbreviated length and the lack of much morality in Heimburger’s otherwise spot-on performance. But, these flaws hardly lessen the impact of this curiosity piece of a film that will surely provoke an audience response.
Rating: 7/10
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