Le ballon rouge

This is one of the first films I remember seeing. My grandfather was kind enough to record it off of television for me when I was only one or two years old. I remember enjoying it alot as a very young child and I enjoy this film just as much, if not even more, today. I can appreciate the story more, now that I'm older. It is one of the truly best short films ever made, right up there with the best of Chaplin and other great short-film makers.

This film is one of my all-time favorites. I consider it a masterpiece, and an emotionally moving experience. As an allegory on the power of love and friendship, it is unsurpassed. Yet one senses deeper, more profound meanings with the balloon as a symbol of the spirit and resilience of life itself, being able to mutate and regenerate itself in an endless flow of passion.

I add to my commentary that the only place in the world the DVD of this film is available is the USA ( as of September 12 2005). The quality of this pressing and the colours leave to be desired .. they are rather washed out and with plenty of clicks and pops. The DVD is NOT region coded and will work on any machine accepting the NTSC color system. It is therefore better than nothing and will partly satisfy those who have been waiting for years to see this film again !

This truly magical and picturesque film is the colour record of the Belleville area of Paris which was razed to the ground during the late 1960's and left as waste land for 20 years.

Ninety-five percent of what you see in the film exists no more, the bakeries, the famous Y-shaped staircase situated just beyond the equally famous café "Au Repos de la Montagne" , the long-gone steep steps of the rue Vilin where Pascal finds the balloon initially etc, the waste ground where all the battles took place. All this has gone for ever, disappeared into another dimension, and has been replaced by a featureless modern-day park surrounded by ugly high-rise blocks built in the seventies and where it is not always safe to walk alone - the kids there certainly aren't running about after balloons these days, they're more interested in throwing stones at passers-by ! I personally visited recently on several occasions the site of where this was filmed and couldn't believe my eyes - it was like two different worlds !

One or two shots are taken in Montmartre and there is a brief glimpse of the Seine but be advised that the quasi-totality of the film was shot in Belleville and the adjacent "quartier des Pyrenees". Only the large church ( Notre-Dame de la Croix, between the Place Maurice Chevalier and the Place de Ménilmontant ) remains today, dwarfed by the high rise blocks I mentioned earlier. Only when you look to the top flats of the houses in the rue des Envierges and the sky beyond, can you maintain the illusion that time has stood still ! The opening scene in the film where Pascal is just about to go down the staircase cannot be reproduced today - both the bakery to his left - and the "Maison du Meunier" to his right (as well as the staircase) have been completely demolished !

Picture quality in the film is excellent and the weather seems to have been quite fine when they made it though I hasted to add that the recent DVD does not render justice to this.

The little boy in the film, Pascal Lamorisse, is the son of the director (Albert Lamorisse ). I wonder what has become of him. We here nothing of him today.........

The film unfortunately seems more well-known abroad than in France itself, where it would appear to have fallen into total oblivion, no doubt one day some bright spark will have it remastered and cleaned up and put on to a good quality DVD for future generations of children and adults alike.

THE RED BALLOON rescued by a small Parisian lad will transform his life in unbelievable ways.

This is a marvelous film, full of love & hope, searing sorrow & overwhelming joy. It is also a classic example of what can be done in a very limited time frame, with a compelling story and genius behind the camera.

The special effects are still entrancing, with wonderful editing & camerawork which turns the byways & alleys of old Paris into the canvas on which this fantasy is painted.

Director Albert Lamorisse's young son, Pascal, is the very fortunate star of this urban fairy tale.

If the tribulations & persecutions of the Red Balloon appear to be a type of Epiphany, that is probably no coincidence.

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.