La Ballon Rouge
Finally, after seven days of living sans computer, mine has returned with a new fully functional graphics card. Enabling me to view and enjoy Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 film, La Ballon Rouge (The Red Balloon).
For this week, Dr. Hyperbolus and I are swapping days.
Not even a minute into this shit it’s already proven itself an award-winner. Did other films in the 50s list their accomplishments before the main title card? Hubristic?
We open on a little boy in Paris… petting a stray cat.
So this kid climbs a lamppost to save the entangled red balloon.
He asks a groundkeeper to hold his balloon while he’s at school.
I assume the groundskeeper did his job, because in the next scene the kid is leaving his class with it in pristine condition.
To protect his sentient-like bloodred dustinhoffmansharonstone-esque floating sphere, he sequesters the help of an old man by getting permission to share his umbrella.
The old man makes his destination and can no longer assist. So the boy starts piggybacking on pedestrians.
A lady.
A couple of nuns.
Another dude in a trench coat.
French police? or Spartan army in Fascist leather coats?
No matter, they pass on by. No harm done.
This film has some beautiful shots of Paris.
So the boy returns home. His housekeeper shoves the balloon out the window, but it stays and floats nearby.
NEXT DAY.
A shopkeeper opens his business.
A woman receives the mail.
Some dude carries a giant sheet of glass on his back.
The boy makes it a point to establish supreme dominance.
Yelling at the balloon to come down, the Balloon decides to fuck around and stay just out of reaching distance.
Whose the supreme dominator now, bitch!
Holy balls, watch out for that fucking stray dog! Jesus H Macy!
No worries, the next scene it’s as if it never happened.
Unable to board the bus the balloon chases it.
Actually making it to school on time this day, the boy and his balloon are met with a feisty mob of classmates, hell bent on gaining control of the red balloon.
The balloon tries to follow the boy into the school but is caught by the headmaster.
The headmaster (aka Hitler) punishes the boy for it and locks him in a confined space.
For the next couple minutes, the red balloon stalks and tortures the headmaster until he lets the boy out.
The buddies are back. Fuck tha police.
After a short stint at a street market where they almost lose each other because the balloon identifies itself in a mirror and can’t look away, they pass a girl carrying a blue balloon.
Blue tries to follow red.
FUCK. NO. YOU LITTLE SHITS! WTF ARE YOU DOING?!
YOU MOTHER FUCKERS! NOOOO!
Whew! They make it home. The mob follows and waits outside. You little shits.
I imagine this is later in the day or the next day, but this is the longest couple of shots we’ve seen without the balloon. I feel a slight sense of nausea. The framing is kept in such a way that the open gate remains in view.
The balloon slowly makes its way into the church.
After some rustling noises, the boy emerges with the balloon followed by an armed guard. What the hell kind of church is this?!
They run away.
Into another beautiful shot.
The boy Tony-Danza-Style reminds the balloon who the boss is as he goes into a pastry shop to get some sweets.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. These little fuckers are back.
WHAT THE FUCK?! They’ve tied the balloon to a rock and are beating the balloon with a stick as they travel to god knows where.
YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOUR FUCKING BALLOON WENT?! YOU STUPID BASTARD! YOU DUMB BASTARD!
THEYRE PELTING IT WITH ROCKS!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!
This boy has NO FUCKING CLUE WHATS GOING ON! Get the FUCK OVER THERE!
The fucking door won’t open so he calls the balloon to come down to him.
YOU PIECES OF SHIT!
THE ROPE BROKE! IT BROKE! IT BROKE!
RUN MOTHA FUCKA RUN!!!
….
SURROUNDED!!
The boy pleads for the balloon to escape as they hold him down.
Another hit with the slingshot. The balloon is dazed, injured.
Balloons across the city gather.
This film was an emotional rollercoaster. Showcasing a range of human states, from indifference to joy to cruelty.
Only the children in this film have a strong reaction towards the balloon.
All of the adults either find it a nuisance or don’t notice it at all. And, unfortunate for us, the children who are unable to capture the balloon end up wanting to destroy it out of jealousy.
The cruelty of kids.
While the film dabbles in the fantastic throughout, the ending is of course, the most fantastical. And why not make it the most fantastical! For this film is a dedication to, and a reminder of, the kid we have in each of us. Our sense of curiosity, playfulness, and wonderment.
In the end, we watch him float away with our innocence
our childhood.
Wikipedia – Sidenote: the 1956 Oscar Winning short film “Le Ballon Rouge” also known as The Red Balloon was shot in Belleville and featured many parts of the region which were subsequently demolished in the 1960s.
IMDB Side Note: (from User Comment by Nicholas Rhodes) “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!”
The Word