moviereview - The Flight of the Red Balloon

THE FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON

	A harried woman works as a voice-over artist. Her son is pursued by a red balloon. His nanny, a film student, is remaking Lamorisse's The Red Balloon.	score 2+	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Juliette Binoche, Song Fang, Simon Iteanu, Hippolyte Girardot

Director
Hou Hsiao-hsien

Screenwriter
Hou Hsiao-hsien
François Margolin

Country
France (subtitles)

Rating / Running Time
PG / 113 minutes

Australian Release
May 2008

Official Site

One’s interest in Hou’s homage to Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 The Red Balloon rests largely on one’s interest in the enchanting original. Perhaps Juliette Binoche. Maybe the director’s gentle, rhythmic art-house style.

Otherwise, one is in for a very long haul as a wilful balloon flies across Paris in pursuit of Simon (Simon Iteanu), the son of harried Suzanne (Binoche). Compressed into a small apartment, he finds some solace with his nanny, Song (Song Fang). She’s a film student remaking The Red Balloon. Then, well, not much really.

Using the original 30-minute short as a springboard, technical contrivance serves to move the slender story forward though repetitive and mundane dialogue, clearly improvised, soon grows tiring. The film is on firmer, more interesting ground when Simon escapes the flat and engages with the neighbourhood, notably on a class journey to the Musee d’Orsay. However most of the limited action takes place in their claustrophobic, scruffy-chic apartment.

Festival audiences may be familiar with the Taiwanese director’s award-winning body of work, notably 1993’s In the Hands of the Puppet Master. His eloquent, meandering and often iridescent style is a signature on this film and while eye-catching, is undone by the paucity of content. Suzanne’s domestic situation, Simon’s desire to break free, Song’s fascination with The Red Balloon and indeed, the red balloon itself, all interesting ideas, are not explored with much enthusiasm.

While engaging notions of loneliness, drift and beauty abound – the singular balloon an obvious yet striking metaphor –The Flight of the Red Balloon serves as a kind of cinematic wallpaper: an elegant offering that one might well admire, but not necessarily embrace.

// COLIN FRASER