Flight of the Red Balloon

Le voyage du ballon rouge

Director Hou Hsiao-hsien brings dreamlike, elliptical sensibilities to the City of Light in this pensive homage to Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon (1956). Observed by his film student nanny, the quotidian dramas of life for a young boy and his frazzled performance artist mother play out amid a cluttered Paris apartment, attended by reflections of the past and the transitory red balloon.

Producer: François Margolin, Kristina Larsen.  Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien.  Screenwriter: François Margolin.  Cinematography: Mark Lee (Ping-bin).  Editor: Liao Ching-sung, Jean-Christophe Hym.  Cast: Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu, Song Fang, Hippolyte Girardot, Louis Margolin.  35mm, color, in French and Mandarin with English subtitles, 115 min.