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| Friday, February 27, 2009 |
| Red Balloon [1956] |
 Directed by: Albert Lamorisse.
In keeping with the mute red balloon which connects with the little boy's thoughts, the short film has almost no spoken words. The beautiful background score [by Maurice Leroux] wafts in and out, spliced together by periods of silence to create a universal language that needs no interpretation. Stark against the blue-gray Parisian background, the big helium filled balloon with a mind of its own breaths in a pattern of symbolism- dreams of escaping the earthbound life and the inevitable opposition by the crowd for being different. The joys of childhood, of being small and running on cobblestone streets, clacking across narrow lanes and when a free floating balloon is all you need to be content with life and the disappointments and pain of the same childhood that can take your playthings away are all carefully stitched in this 34 minutes film.
The cinematography is intelligent with the camera pausing as if to contemplate, not rushing with its close-ups or long takes and then picking up rhythm naturally with its tracking shots or scenes of chase. My personal favorite shot from the movie is when he runs next to a train not shown on the screen but hinted at by the off-screen sounds and smoke billowing in rhythm with the chugging sounds. |
posted by C @ 11:19 PM  |
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