On L List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Le ballon rouge (1956)
Rate:
7
Viewed:
6/19
6/19:
Le ballon rouge is a quirky, innovative French short with no more than twenty-five words (this one won the Oscar for
Best Original Screenplay if you can believe it) about a boy with a red balloon that acts like a dog.
Children will probably like the film, but for adults, I'm not sure but I guess they'll have to tap their inner child to get into
it. There are stories of them hating Le ballon rouge with passion because they were endlessly subjected to watching it
on a rainy day during school which went on for decades.
The running length of 34 minutes feels long, stretching many parts to a lot of nothing. It's easy to see the string atop
the red balloon which can be distracting at times. At least, I like observing what the Ménilmontant neighborhood of Paris looked
like back then. Most of it is now gone.
The ending is sad, but there's a happy, spiritual moment to erase it away. A contrast is made between the red balloon
and the drab, dreary background as if France is trying to recover after WWII. Adults are viewed as rigid while children are
made out to be little feral monsters. Amidst them is a boy who wish to be away from it all by letting his imagination
roam free.
Incidentally, the director of the film is named Albert Lamorisse, and he invented the board game called Risk in 1957.
He died at the age of 48 in helicopter crash while shooting a documentary short in Iran. The boy in Le ballon rouge is
his son Pascal.
All in all, Le ballon rouge is a feel-good short film that's perhaps too simple-minded.