Flight of the Red Balloon

• Juliette Binoche: Suzanne
• Simon Iteanu: Simon
• Fang Song Fang Song
• Hippolyte Girardot: Marc
• Louise Margolin: Louise
• Anna Sigalevitch: Anna
• Charles -Edouard Renault: Lorenzo

The French film drama Le Voyage du ballon rouge ( Flight of the Red Balloon) by Hou Hsiao -Hsien from 2007 is a tribute to director Albert Lamorisse and is loosely based on the oscargekröntem short film The Red Balloon of 1956., Starring Juliette Binoche and the young Simon Iteanu.

The impressionistic and slightly post-modern film, which can also think of the poetic realism, is the first in a series that Serge Lemoine called from the Musée d' Orsay in life by asking directors to work, where his museum is found in any way.

The dialogue is mostly improvised. The sales, IFC Entertainment: " Hou develops its key elements - a little boy, a red balloon and Paris [ ... ] "

Action

A mysterious red balloon follows the playing Simon through the autumnal Paris. At one stop on the metro at Place de la Bastille, the two separate, because they do not agree. The balloon escapes almost an incoming subway, which vanishes again in the tunnel. His single mother Suzanne is a vocal artist in puppet theater ( currently there is a creepy Chinese drama from the Yuan Dynasty rehearsed ) and landlady. The blonde shows eccentric, thoughtful, wechselmütig, chaotic, self-centered, somewhat revised, vulnerable and certainly warm. Your little floor apartment is bursting with bookshelves, CDs and files. There is almost no windows, but comfortable in warm tones, with plenty of carpet, curtains and knick-knacks of all kinds Enduring it rings at the door or the phone rings. The curly-haired Simon learns piano like mathematics, has a Playstation and a Gameboy, and is quiet for his age. Occasionally penetrate sirens of emergency vehicles in muffled.

An exchange student from Beijing, Song, is to take care of Simon. The nice, somehow mysterious song is studying film, and is planning a short film about red balloons. The balloon stalks in another guest appearance on the roofs at the apartment. Sometimes Simon's older sister (or half sister? ) Louise in Brussels speech. Piano teacher Anna performs with Simon, at the home of Marc and his girlfriend, who is directly beneath it. Song goes with Simon stroll, and decreases with the camcorder on. Simon goes into a flashback with his sister at a café to play pinball Emmenez -moi by Charles Aznavour, and she chats with him about his earliest childhood memories. Marc's girlfriend Suzanne's always cooking in the apartment. Marc and Gregory, a friend of her husband Pierre to come by. Suzanne takes the train to a discussion group with the venerable puppeteer Ah Zhong. Later, she chats with the film student about the man in the green suit, and on the green screen technique. Suzanne smiles Simon ( and the audience ). Movers bring a piano.

Difficulties with a tenant are emerging, which is already a year of rent in arrears, and was once a friend. You can not find the lease, and turns everything on its head. A walk by Song and Simon in the park shows the balloon, and will depend otherwise inconclusive and no wind around on the facades. Lorenzo, a friend with experience in legal matters, is to visit. Song prepares crêpes. Suzanne and Song discuss the weekly budget, while the child plays off Playstation. The son watch them on the laptop an old family video, where the grandfather can be seen, and the sister indistinct. Simon runs public transport and plays mirror image with the windows. Another performance will be held. Suzanne leads in the car a serious phone conversation with her ​​husband in Montreal, which is perhaps not coming back. A blind piano tuner named William is led into the apartment and gets to work. Louise is a few minutes on the phone (as with all phone calls will not hear the other side for the viewer ). Then cry in the stairwell, and the offending tenant Marc gives up inlet, and with him she argues briefly and bitterly. Of Suzanne is scratched, sad and dazed, and only once has to breathe. On the phone she hears that her daughter wants to stay in Brussels. But Simon is there.

They go out again. Then Simon goes up the stairs to his mezzanine, and goes to sleep. The balloon wants through the frosted glass of the skylight to him. Later, his school class goes on a field trip to the Musée d' Orsay, where the children of Le ballon Félix Vallotton interpret in terms of perspective, the objects and the scene. But Simon is already in his fantasy world, and the balloon seems to have given up and Tchin tchin by Camille he screwed up to dizzying heights in the stratosphere.

Reviews

• " Hou does not act like a visitor from another country or another time, but rather from another planet. Hou and his permanent cinematographer, Mark Lee Ping Bing, give the city a perlmuttenen shine " - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

• " The essential power [ ... ] is like the feeling is captured, to observe real life. As if you were in a strange apartment, and watching the people from close range. Since it is so invisible, and would not move much, it does not do the camera. "- Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

• "Instead of pyrotechnics, we have Suzanne [ ... ] Think of Penelope Cruz in Volver " - Praveen Rathinavelu, The Tech

• " The wonderful about Hous films, the longer you think about it, the more relationships and ideas can be found. " - Beth Accomando, KPBS

• "With art, says Hou, we try the wonder of childhood revive " - Ty Burr, The Boston Globe

• " Hou seems to have accepted his distance from the material - and uses them. [ ... ] Specifically a maverick film [ ... ] Hou's narrative rhythm allows long periods where hardly anything happens, terminated by cascades over resounding information. [ ... ] A class of its own " - J. Hoberman, Village Voice

• " A work of art from the rank of a poem by Yeats or an image of Rothko [ ... ] His films are like the ocean. [ ... ] Is already interested in anybody. "- John Anderson, The Washington Post

• "Is Le ballon ' a happy or a sad picture? [ ... ] A little ambiguity leaves the old fox but already resonate: His new film is not only his first European tour and free, and also a tribute to the children's film classic, Le ballon rouge ' (1956 ) by Albert Lamorisse, but also commissioned work [ ... ] the beloved puppet art serves Hou as a contrast to his French fantasy that is content with little notes on art and life [ ... ] unusual inaccuracies there are in Hous Away [ ... ] But, as he missed the narrow apartment [ ... ] gives an idea of Hou's surrender, the Profound unforced to convey the details of everyday life. "- Christoph Huber, Die Presse

• " It's like Jaws shark without make, but with a focus on the dysfunctional Amity Island " ( like doing Jaws without the shark ) - Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

• " One of the monumentalst boring movies I ever had to sit through. [ ... ] The film is like a documentary on a very dreary day. [ ... ] Hou gives us meticulously not the slightest information, what ever is going on. [ ... ] Incredibly frustrating. "- Kurt Loder, MTV.com

With the voices of 1154 spectators Le Voyage du ballon rouge is on 14 February 2009 on IMDb 6.9 out of 10 and 79 percent at 77 evaluated reviews at Rotten Tomatoes (56 percent of 9 Topkritikern ), Metacritic recognizes 86 percent with 23 votes critics who have entered into the assessment.

Others

Fang Song is not really an actress, but a film student.

The film was shown at the film festival of Cannes 2007 in the "Un Certain Regard ".