The Red Balloon

The only short film ever to win an Oscar for best original screenplay (the dialogue is minimal, however), Albert Lamorisse's irresistibly-told story of a nine-year-old Parisian boy (Lamorisse's son, Pascal) and his magical red balloon captured audiences around the world in its day and remains a classic.
 
Clever in the way it crafts a story from the simple concept indicated by the film's title with beautiful photography by Edmond Séchan it is perhaps even more engaging today because of the Paris of fifty years ago that it depicts and its evocation of a more innocent way of life. Fans of Jacques Tati will see much in common with that director’s work but it is a film that, above all, children today, fed on a diet of crass MTV hyperbole, should see

FYI: In 2008 Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s made a feature length homage to Lamorisse's film called Flight of the Red Balloon.

 

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