Flight of the Red Balloon
7 /10 1 Votes
Director Hou Hsiao-Hsien Initial DVD release August 6, 2008 (France) Country France
Taiwan | 6.8/10 IMDb Genre Drama, Family Duration Language French | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date May 17, 2007 (2007-05-17) (Cannes Film Festival)
January 30, 2008 (2008-01-30) (France) Writer Hsiao-hsien Hou, Francois Margolin Screenplay Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Francois Margolin Cast Juliette Binoche (Suzanne), Simon Iteanu (Simon), Fang Song (Song), Hippolyte Girardot (Marc), Louise Margolin (Louise), Anna Sigalevitch (Anna)Similar movies Interstellar , Amélie , The Dreamers , Everyone Says I Love You , Paris, je t'aime , Stolen Kisses | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As a single mother in Paris, Suzanne (Juliette Binoche) struggles to spend enough time with her young son, Simon (Simon Iteanu), between her job voice-acting at puppet shows and handling a court case against her downstairs tenant (Hippolyte Girardot), who refuses to leave. As a result, Suzanne hires Song (Song Fang), a local university student, to watch Simon while she works and deals with the case. Together, Simon and Song create a vibrant world of imagination, where a red balloon follows them.
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Flight of the Red Balloon (French: ) is a 2007 French-Taiwanese film directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien. It is the first part in a new series of films produced by Musee dOrsay, and tells the story of a French family as seen through the eyes of a Chinese student. The film was shot in August and September 2006 on location in Paris. This is Hou Hsiao-Hsiens first non-Asian film. It references the classic 1956 French short The Red Balloon directed by Albert Lamorisse.
The film opened the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007.
The first part in a new series of films produced by Musée d'Orsay, 'Flight of the Red Balloon' tells the story of a French family as seen through the eyes of a Chinese student. The film was shot in August and September 2006 on location in Paris. This is Hou Hsiao-Hsien's first Western film. It is based on the classic French short The Red Balloon directed by Albert Lamorisse.
Synopsis
Suzanne, a puppeteer, lives with her young son Simon in an apartment in Paris. While her daughter Louise is away in Brussels and she is worried over a financial battle with her tenant, Marc, Suzanne hires a Chinese filmmaker named Song as Simons new nanny.
Critical reception
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of 86 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it got a rating average of 6.9 out of 10.
J. Hoberman, writing in The Village Voice was particularly appreciative of the film stating, "Flight of the Red Balloon is contemplative but never static, and punctuated by passages of pure cinema".
Hong Kong film critic Perry Lam, however, wrote a largely negative review in Muse Magazine: "You get the sense that the director hasnt really made up his mind about what kind of movie he wants Red Balloon to be. His style seems to embrace naturalism, while his thematic concern disavows it."
Top ten lists
The film appeared on several critics top ten lists of the best films of 2008.
Awards
The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2007 Valladolid International Film Festival.
References
Flight of the Red Balloon WikipediaFlight of the Red Balloon IMDb Flight of the Red Balloon themoviedb.org