1956, French Short Film, 8.2/10, YouTube, Directed by Albert Lamorisse
An endearing story of a little boy and a red balloon that leaves you in complete wonderment, of the technique and narrative in personifying the red balloon
The film starting with the deep focus shot with sun shining through and a little boy (Pascal), it sets the mood for the viewer that it’s a film about a little boy and his red balloon.
On the way to his school, Pascal boy climes up to fetch the balloon, a strikingly bright red, and the vibrant color rings it’s a metaphor. As the rest of the film unveils, we are geared to decode the metaphor. When the boy realizes that the balloon obeys and takes orders from him, as viewers we are enchanted as a child ourselves.
For me it reminded the friendly ghost ‘casper’ from the animation world and I saw the balloon as his pal or his pet dog who would follow him everywhere. Many adult on the road are envious of the boy’s relationship with the bright red balloon.
As one is left to subconsciously decipher the metaphor for me it evoked a sense that the Balloon was a metaphor for ‘Happiness’. Society is picking on a happy person to try and snatch the happiness from him., is what i thought.
Pascal is eventually chased by bullying boys who try to get hold of his balloon. In the chase sequence, the camera follows the kids and the lighting that’s used to highlight the kids, keeps you totally engaged and you are rooting for the little boy to escape with his balloon(happiness).
The city and its devastation after the war is evident with broken walls and buildings, denoting its post-world war before the city hasn’t regained stability to rebuild itself.
When Pascal’s red balloon tries to woo the blue balloon of a little girl’s, it transpired to me as happy days of couple of fiends.
As I visualized the bright red balloon as ‘happiness’, the film translated to me as a tale of those dark people around us who sometimes try and steal happiness from us sadistically. The final shot of the movie when the red balloon is destroyed and all the balloons of the city lifts the boy to the sky, that fantasy, looked to be like even if people succeed in marring our happiness, ‘Karma’ will get us back all the lost happiness, in a larger magnitude, that it literally sweeps us off the floor and we end up flying colorfully in the vastness of the sky, all set to conquer the world.
These are my thoughts when I watched the film and I bet it would speak to you differently. Would be glad to read your theory.
A Must watch.