The story of an illusion, a pretense, a troubled identity… Nicole Garcia definitely excels in these troubled waters where the storms of passion and the rebounds of a childhood spent in a vanished country mingle ( colonial Algeria). In “A balcony on the sea”, she follows Marc, a real estate agent in Aix-en-Provence, who thinks he recognizes, during a visit, his childhood love in Oran. After a brief adventure with this client, he wonders: the years have passed, people are changing, is this young woman really the Cathy of yesteryear? Married, settled in life, Marc sees all his certainties waver, especially since he learns that Cathy would have died, killed in an attack in the middle of the war of independence… But then, who is this fake Cathy?
Nostalgia for a bygone era
Obviously, one thinks of the shadows and deceptive realities of the Hitchcock film “Cold Sweats”, where James Stewart falls in love with a woman who is (or is not) the one he believes… of this “Balcony on the sea”, it is the poetic baggage of Nicole Garcia: these streets of Oran in which she lived, this store run by her father, these children who play outside under the sun, here they are in the memory of Marc, played by Jean Dujardin. We feel acutely how much the nostalgia of a past era, of this happiness destroyed by the irruption of History, is in the heart of the director.
The sequel after the ad
As for the character of the unknown (is she Cathy or Marie-Louise?), it is interpreted with finesse by Marie-Josée Croze, Canadian actress (unforgettable in “Calvary”, by John Michael McDonagh), who doubles up to better pigeon Dujardin … Just for fun, note the presence of Claudia Cardinale (also a child from North Africa) and Michel Aumont, always so disturbing. In her new film, “Amants” (whose release has been delayed due to Covid), Nicole Garcia takes up the themes of interrupted love, unexpected reunions, shattered destiny. “A balcony on the sea” and “Amants”: two films in good continuity.
Thursday, April 13 at 9:40 p.m. on OCS Max. Drama by Nicole Garcia (2010). With Jean Dujardin, Marie-Josée Croze. 1h45. (Multicast and On Demand).
