The Red Balloon (1956) won an Oscar, BAFTA, and Palme d'Or for Best Short Film.
Simple yet magical. The balloon representing anything you want it to. An imaginary friend? Perhaps childhood wonder and happiness, yet by its vulnerability, a feeling the innocence won’t last. I'm not sure I want to know what it all means as it makes you day dream.
Impressive how they got the balloon to have a life of its own and follow the boy around, I wonder how they did that? Paris is depicted beautifully by the cinematography.
I love this movie so much! Such a sweet, charming, tender look at childhood, innocence and the journey to adulthood.
ReplyDelete@Fisti: I’m a fan of the short too, and agree with what you say
DeleteI liked this one a lot, too. I'm sure I would have liked it even more if I saw it as a kid.
ReplyDelete@Chip: That’s true, I would love to give a copy of the film to my 6-year-old self
DeleteCoincidentally the book was mentioned in a comment recently and set me off thinking about this. The film looks wonderful, for many reasons - I've only watched the first 10 minutes so far but I must come back to watch it in completion. Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDelete@C: I didn’t look deep into the history, so wasn’t aware of the book. I’ll google it. You're welcome, and hope you enjoy the rest of the short film.
Delete1974, LA Unified. They packed us kindergartners into the school auditorium to watch this. It blew us away! For me its always been a story on how to triumph over bullies or the world in general when it kicks you down.
ReplyDelete@Mr Brown: Lucky you, I wish I could have seen it when I was young. I’ll keep your interpretation in mind when I rewatch the short
DeleteUnless I count an episode or two from The Decalogue, this is probably my favorite short. Glad you love it, too.
ReplyDelete@Josh: It’s one of my favorite short films too.
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