Cast

Flight of the Red Balloon is the long awaited new film by the acclaimed Chinese filmmaker, Hou Hsiao-Hsien. This film is a homage to the French classic The Red Balloon, one of the best children’s’ films ever made.  Flight of the Red Balloon was previously shown here at the 2007 Chicago International Film Festival. It is scheduled to begin a run at the Music Box Theater on April 18. 

Like Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s previous film, Café Lumiere, Flight of the Red Balloon takes place in France, but it makes better use of the exquisite Parisian scenery.  With the camera, Hsiao-Hsein is able to perfectly capture an outsider’s sense of wonder, as well as the splendor of the ancient/modern city (The camera often settles on visual elements, which capture the city’s modernity and antiquity)..

 Flight of the Red Balloon is a true collaborative effort, and the director allowed the actors to improvise much of their own dialogue.

The star, Juliette Binoche, was even encouraged to wear her own clothes. As a result, the character portrayals come off as more intimate than most character portrayals. 

Flight of the Red Balloon juggles several intermingling plotlines with related characters, but Juliette Binoche’s fine performance dominates the film. She plays Suzanne, a moody and self centered puppeteer with a turbulent personal life and severe famly problems. Her husband is hiding out in Canada writing a book, so she is parenting alone, and she often puts her career before her son.  Also, her daughter is away, and in an extremely pathetic scene Suzanne pleads for her to return.  

The second plot thread involves her lonely son, Simon. The camera follows him as he is pursued by a sllent red balloon, which sometimes seems to have a life of its own. This scene virtually recreates a similar one in the original The Red Balloon, but this time, the red object doesn’t necessarily possess preternatural intelligence.

The third main character, Song (played by Song Fang), is androgynous and dresses so as to not attract attention. She’s even tempered and non-flamboyant, so in many ways she is the opposite of Suzanne. She is Asian, but she is in France to make a homage to (you guessed it)   The Red Balloon. In order to make money, she works as a nanny for Simon, and she seems to have better parenting skills than the real mom who is constantly overwhelmed and stressed out. 

Flight of the Red Balloon is more satisfying and visually rich than Café Lumiere, but it probably won’t leave a lasting impression on the minds of most film viewers. It is just as light and airy as its subject, and it just floats away in the end. Still, it’s a perfect film for a spring day, and it may inspire some feelings of revival and renewal.