For a one-reeler,this work can boast numerous comments:not one of them-bar one- comes from France!Since its success in the festival de Cannes 1956,Albert Lamorisse's short film was relegated to purgatory.Often dismissed by French critics as bland ,mushy and arty,it sank slowly but inexorably into oblivion.The other countries have always had a warm spot for it.And they are right.
If you were a young student in the late fifties/early sixties,"le ballon rouge" was one of your initiation books.After 1968,the story almost completely disappeared from textbooks.
Actually it was new wave "avant l'heure"! Filmed in the streets of Paris -as Varda ,Truffault and countless others would do afterwards-,its form was innovative .And the red balloon ,against the grey walls of the French capital,it's "Schindler's list" brainwave in 1956!Some details date the movie -the verger(or "suisse")in the church- but they inspire its vital charm:those old schools of long ago,those alleys full of little hoodlums ,those buses where dogs,cats and...balloons are not allowed,those countries you long to see a long way from your colorlessness,in a nutshell,those memories you keep deep in your heart when you become a grown-up,all this and more come back when you see "le ballon rouge" ,one of the two imperishable French childhood monuments.The other is Yves Robert's "la guerre des boutons".
NB:singer Renaud was an extra,as one of the twins.
If you were a young student in the late fifties/early sixties,"le ballon rouge" was one of your initiation books.After 1968,the story almost completely disappeared from textbooks.
Actually it was new wave "avant l'heure"! Filmed in the streets of Paris -as Varda ,Truffault and countless others would do afterwards-,its form was innovative .And the red balloon ,against the grey walls of the French capital,it's "Schindler's list" brainwave in 1956!Some details date the movie -the verger(or "suisse")in the church- but they inspire its vital charm:those old schools of long ago,those alleys full of little hoodlums ,those buses where dogs,cats and...balloons are not allowed,those countries you long to see a long way from your colorlessness,in a nutshell,those memories you keep deep in your heart when you become a grown-up,all this and more come back when you see "le ballon rouge" ,one of the two imperishable French childhood monuments.The other is Yves Robert's "la guerre des boutons".
NB:singer Renaud was an extra,as one of the twins.