LE VOYAGE DU BALLON
ROUGE
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON |
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DIRECTOR
Hou Hsiao-hsien
SCREENPLAY
Hou Hsiao-hsien
CAST
Suzanne: Juliette Binoche
Song: Song Fang
Simon: Simon Iteanu
Marc: Hippolyte Girardot
Louise: Louise Margolin
Running time: 113’
Production: France, 2007
Rating: Not rated
Gauge: 35mm, DVD (color)
GENRE
Drama
DISTRIBUTOR
IFC Films
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“Through a series of quiet,
seemingly offhand yet exquisitely conceived interludes, Mr Hou
introduces us to three fully inhabited people who embody the
careless joys of childhood, the hopes of young adulthood and
the burdens of older age. Mr. Hou arranges these bodies with
his usual tender touch; his mastery of film space remains assured
as ever, even many miles from home, as does his work with actors…
lovely, lovely film…”
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times |
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A mysterious red balloon
affectionately follows Simon, a precocious, wide-eyed seven-year-old
boy, around Paris. His mother Suzanne is a puppeteer who uses
her vocal talents to bring life to the shows she writes. Single
mother of two, Simon and an older sister, Suzanne went through
a bad divorce and is now struggling with her multi-tasking as
an artist, mother, and landlord. Completely absorbed in her
new show and overwhelmed by the complications of modern daily
life, she decides to hire Song Fang as Simon's nanny.The young,
sensitive Taiwanese film student in Paris will take care of
his needs, pick him up from school, cook for him, oversee his
piano lessons and be a companion to an inquisitive, gifted and
very lonely boy. Simon and Song watch as the adults around them
come apart at the seams, with joy and anguish, love and hatred.
They come to form a unique extended family, thoroughly interdependent
yet all lost in separate thoughts and dreams. Inspired by Albert
Lamorisse's classic 1956 short The Red Balloon, the
fluid, unparalleled elegance of Hou's first French-language
film finds grace in the simplest details, and gently discovers
a Paris previously unseen.
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| PHOTO IFC Films |
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