Review: Flight of the Red Balloon (2007)

by

13, October 2011Approved By NP, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Reviews, Spotlight

Flight of the Red Balloon… How do I even begin a review for a film that is delicate enough to capture the whimsical naiveté of childhood but mature enough to have its heart broken because that light eventually gives way to the soul dampening shadows of adulthood? I sit here and try to sort out a way to encapsulate a small portion of this film in a passable review and my mind is swirling with images of the soft light that breaks through the leaves of trees and creates prismatic arrays of greens and yellows and cast reflections of Parisian cobblestone and stucco buildings on every surface. Each reflection creates entire worlds within the frame, but the eye can accept these images and their muted density without much of a struggle as these images cast themselves directly on to your subconscious. The Technicolor Parisian streets of Albert Lomirisse’s Le balloon rouge are still present amidst the modernized mass transit systems and bustle of daily life, but reveal themselves only in reflections and only to those with an eye untrained in the ways of adulthood and the necessary shadows it sometimes brings. I will do what I can to capture some of this film’s heartbreaking magic in my review, but accept the inadequacy of my words as a means of conveyance. The best I can hope to do is influence others to experience it for themselves.

Hsiao-hsien Hou has created a touching homage to Lomirisse’s 1956 short, but it is more a touching tribute to film as an artistic medium and its power to remind us of the innocence and inquisitive nature of childhood that we may not even realize that we had lost. Being a parent my subjective interpretation of the film may be different than some of yours, but I understand the shadows that parenthood will sometimes make us occupy so that our children may bask in light for as long as possible. In our desperate scramble to ensure that our children are provided for, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that all things are transient and we should take moments to occupy the luminescence and innocence that children intrinsically know and are eventually forced to forget. In occupying this light we can form more meaningful connections with our children and allow ourselves to briefly forget that there are bills that need paying, rooms that need painting, or whatever other arbitrary tasks of “responsible adulthood” that we purposely shackle ourselves with in a misguided attempt to be a good parent. Cinema sometimes has the power to remind me of this, and this is one of the infinite reasons for my obsession with the medium.

There is an unspoken magic that permeates the undercurrent of this film. The playful anthropomorphism of the red balloon is merely one element of the films magical properties. There could also be elements of transmutation as the red balloon of Lomirisse’s film drifts away just before the arrival of caregiver and film student, Song Fang. Song is an innocent that drifts around with Simon, the son of Juliette Binoche’s Suzanne and acts as a new red balloon. She illuminates the beauty of the world for Suzanne and understands Simon on his own terms. Song being a young Chinese filmmaker could be Hou’s injection of himself in to the work. If not his current self, then the person that he once was as he uses his art to remind himself to step out of the shadows and remember to take in the magic of the world from time to time.

98/100 - Hsiao-hsien Hou has created a touching homage to Lomirisse’s 1956 short, but it is more a touching tribute to film as an artistic medium and its power to remind us of the innocence and inquisitive nature of childhood that we may not even realize that we had lost.

Matthew Blevins
Visit My Website / View My Other Posts


Behind me you see the empty bookshelves that my obsession with film has caused. Film teaches me most of the important concepts of life, such as cynicism, beauty, ugliness, subversion of societal norms, and what it is to be a tortured member of humanity. My passion for the medium is an important part of who I am as I stumble through existence in a desperate and frantic search for objective truths.
  • http://twitter.com/NextProjection Christopher Misch

    There is one scene in this film that stands out from the single viewing I had years ago. It’s a simple scene where Binoche is driving and just the reflection of the sunlight/skyscape on the windshield of her car made me believe I was in the hands of a master.