‘Un balcon sur la mer‘ (released in the English-language market under the strange title ‘A View of Love’), the 2010 film by director and screenwriter Nicole Garcia (herself a prolific actress, but not in this film) combines two different stories: a romantic story of the reunion after 25-30 years with a teenage love separated by war, and a thriller built around the mysterious persona of a blonde woman who recalls some of Hitchcock’s female characters. These would be the premises of a successful romantic thriller, and ‘Un balcon sur la mer‘ partly succeeds in being such a film. I wrote ‘partly’ because it seemed to me that there was an obvious imbalance between the two narrative threads. The romance part is much better constructed and has more depth and even more mystery than the thriller part.
Nicole Garcia was born in Oran, Algeria and left her native country as many French nationals did at the end of the colonial period, during the years of civil war, bloody repression and terrorist attacks that preceded this country’s independence. Oran also is at the origin of the story of the heroes in the film. Marc Palestro is a real estate agent, very well situated economically and socially, working in the company run by his father-in-law. In one of his business transactions, the buyer is a woman he seems to recognize as the girl he had a teenage crush for years ago, in the last days before he left Algeria in flames. The woman also recognizes him and a passionate reunion takes place. Marc’s mother, however, seems to know that the little girl he had loved had died shortly after their emigration. Marc, confused, begins to investigate. Mysteries about the woman’s identity pile up and complications arise also in the real estate transactions.
I will not tell more, so as not to deprive those who will see the film of the pleasure of the gradual discoveries. I’ll just say that Jean Dujardin is excellent in the lead role, of the man whose emotional universe is devastated by memories of his youth and uncertainties about the identity of the woman he can’t help but love. It’s one of his first roles outside of the comic register and a good launching pad for the career that followed and continues. I don’t remember having seen before the Quebec-born actress Marie-Josée Croze. She is excellent as Marie-Jeanne, the mysterious woman. Hitchcock himself would have considered her for casting. The formidable Claudia Cardinale appears in one scene as Marc’s mother – what a pleasure to see her again after so many years. Another excellent actress, Sandrine Kiberlain, has too small a role for her immense talent. Out of this story, the only character who doesn’t quite find his place is that played by Toni Servillo, Marie-Jeanne’s elderly lover. The liaison between the two is not well justified. Overall, I found the thriller part to be lackluster. The writers and the director seem not to have been interested too much in it. We are left with an interesting love story and a game of memories, in which the different places where the story takes place have a common element – the luminous Mediterranean Sea.