The Red Balloon

1956 [FRENCH]

Action / Comedy / Drama / Family / Fantasy

18
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 91% · 25 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 91% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 8.1/10 10 21464 21.5K

friendship paris, france chase little boy balloon foot chase

Plot summary

A young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world’s harsh realities finally interfere.

Director

Albert Lamorisse Photo
Albert Lamorisse

Top cast

Renaud Photo
Renaud as Le jumeau en rouge
Georges Sellier Photo
Georges Sellier as Le marchand
Pascal Lamorisse Photo
Pascal Lamorisse as Pascal - le petit garçon
Vladimir Popov Photo
Vladimir Popov as Un locataire
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
313.78 MB
958*720
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   cz   dk   de   gr   es   fi   fr   hr   hu   it   no   nl   pl   pt   ro   ru   sv  
24 fps
12 hr 34 min
Seeds 2
582.62 MB
1438*1080
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   cz   dk   de   gr   es   fi   fr   hr   hu   it   no   nl   pl   pt   ro   ru   sv  
24 fps
12 hr 34 min
Seeds 10

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ma-cortes 8 / 10

Gorgeous short movie filled with colorful images , lively score , glamorous cinematography and enjoyable fantasy

Splendid short movie dealing with the fantasy world of children . A red balloon with a life of its own follows a little boy (Pascal Lamorisse , son of director Albert Lamorisse) around the streets of Paris . Balloon and young boy play together in the streets and slums of Paris and attempt to elude a band of boys that wants to explode the balloon . This timeless movie displays haunting and powerful scenes , it's plenty of frames which stay forever in the mind and there is almost no dialog spoken . The story is narrated with sensitivity and intelligence and is treated a simple adventure developed in great sense of ductility and fairness . In spite of runtime is short , this is a medium-length film, as the run is 35 minutes , it is entertaining , amusing and funny . The gentle humor developed in the film is clever and agreeable and dealing with fantastic as well as surrealist deeds . The plot is plain and simple though is only set in Parisian streets , it isn't dreary , neither boring but fun . Director tirelessly maintains the humorous ingenuity and including fantasy as when the balloon following the little boy around like a pet . Spectacular as well colorful finale when other balloons of various sizes and colors descend on the boy from all parts of Paris, and together they lift him into the sky and take him away over the horizon . Lively musical score is enjoyable and cheerful . The motion picture received awesome reviews and deserves the complete knowledge , acquiring an international reputation for its poetic quality ; receiving a grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and also winning an American Academy award. In fact , with its Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay, the film is the only short film to win an Academy award outside of the short film categories . The picture is nowadays considered to be an European cult film and it had one of the largest non-theatrical runs in the history of American cinema , as thousands of 16-millimeter prints were distributed to schools across the country. The motion picture was stunningly directed by Albert Mamorisse , he was born in Paris and was killed, at 58 , in a helicopter crash while shooting a documentary near Teheran . He was former photographer, he turned to directing short subjects in the late 40s, and 50s involving the childhood and fantastic events . His most successful movies were ¨Crin Blanc¨ (1953) also starred by his son Pascal Lamorisse and ¨The Red balloon¨ (1956) , the latter winning an Academy Award , as it won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, even though it has little dialogue . In the early 60s he turned to feature length films such as ¨Bim¨ and "Stowaway in the Sky" equally starred by his son Pascal , but with considerably less success, then retreated to documentary shorts . His last picture was ¨Le Vent Des Amoureux¨ (1978), a visually stunning helicopter tour of Iran, was later edited from his notes and was nominated for an Oscar as best feature documentary for the Academy award ceremonies of 1979.
Reviewed by ccthemovieman-1 9 / 10

Half-Hour Timeless, Almost Wordless Classic

I'm so glad in 2008 that Criterion made this beautiful film available on DVD with an excellent transfer. This is a famous very short film (half hour) in which a big red balloon follows a little boy everywhere he goes. Finally, jealous kids bust the balloon, but in the end, other balloons around the city come to him and carry him away!It all sounds a bit silly, but it works. It's a very charming, sometimes funny fantasy tale. Kids and adults alike seemed to have enjoyed this French movie over the years. It's now been around for a half century!There is almost no dialog. The kid ("Pascal," played by Pascal Lamorisse) calls the balloon a few times and the other schoolchildren excitedly yell, but that's it for dialog. In all, a classic film that stands by itself for originality and charm.
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