In Theaters
It’s the rare American schoolchild of a certain age who didn’t dread that moment when the old projector would get wheeled out, as they knew that chances were it was going to be for yet another rainy-day showing of Albert Lamorisse’s Le Balloon Rouge. A fine film, of course, but something that could well be done without after the tenth screening. At the start of Hou Hsiao Hsien’s Flight of the Red Balloon, therefore, certain hearts will sink at seeing that big, red and round balloon bobbing impishly about in the Parisian streets, improbably following a curly-haired little boy through the city. Fortunately for those concerned viewers with bad classroom memories, Hou isn’t trying to simply pad out a well-known cultural artifact of yesteryear. Instead, the balloon works here as more of a grace note, an element of the fantastic which bobs into a prototypical Hou tale of disenchantment.Flight of the Red Balloon opened this week in limited release. Read the full review at Film Journal International.
