| Flight of the Red Balloon | |
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©BAC Films 2007 |
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| Directed by | Hou Hsiao-Hsien |
| Produced by | Kristina Larsen François Margolin |
| Written by | Hou Hsiao-Hsien François Margolin |
| Starring | Juliette Binoche Hippolyte Girardot |
| Cinematography | Pin Bing Lee |
| Editing by | Jean-Christophe Hym Ching-Song Liao |
| Release date(s) | Cannes Film Festival: May 17, 2007 France: January 30, 2008 United Kingdom: March 14, 2008 United States: April 4, 2008 Australia: May 29, 2008 |
| Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | France Taiwan |
| Language | French |
Flight of the Red Balloon (French: Le voyage du ballon rouge) is a 2008 French/Taiwan film directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien. It is the first part in a new series of films produced by Musée d'Orsay, and tells the story of a French family as seen through the eyes of a Chinese student. The film was shot in August and September 2006 on location in Paris. This is Hou Hsiao-Hsien's first Western film. It references the classic 1956 French short The Red Balloon directed by Albert Lamorisse.
The film opened the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007.[1]
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Suzanne, a puppeteer, lives with her young son Simon in an apartment in Paris. While her daughter Louise is away in Brussels and she is worried over a financial battle with her tenant, Marc, Suzanne hires a Taiwanese filmmaker named Song as Simon's new nanny.
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 79% of 81 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it got a rating average of 6.8 out of 10.[2]
J. Hoberman, writing in The Village Voice was particularly appreciative of the film stating, "Flight of the Red Balloon is contemplative but never static, and punctuated by passages of pure cinema".[3]
Hong Kong film critic Perry Lam, however, wrote a largely negative review in Muse Magazine: "You get the sense that the director hasn't really made up his mind about what kind of movie he wants Red Balloon to be. His style seems to embrace naturalism, while his thematic concern disavows it."[4]
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[5]
The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2007 Valladolid International Film Festival.
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