A boy has a magical relationship with a red balloon in children’s classic
THE RED BALLOON (LE BALLON ROUGE) (Albert Lamorisse, 1956)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
February 16-21, free with museum admission, 1:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
Lovingly restored several years ago by Janus Films in a new 35mm print, Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, tells the story of a young boy (Pascal Lamorisse, the director’s son) who makes friends with an extraordinary red balloon, which follows him through the streets of Belleville in Paris, waits for him while he is in school, and obeys his every command. But the neighborhood kids are afraid of this stranger and go on a mission to burst the young boy’s bubble. Lamorisse gives life and emotion to the balloon (more than twenty-five thousand were used in the making of the film) in a masterful use of simple special effects well before CGI and other modern technology. The Red Balloon also features the splendid music of Maurice Leroux and the fine photography of Edmond Séchan, which beautifully sets the large red balloon against the gray of the streets and buildings of Paris’s Ménilmontant district. The thirty-four-minute film can also be seen as a parable about Jesus and the birth or Christianity, though it’s best not to read too much into it. The Red Balloon is screening daily February 16-21 at 1:00 at the Museum of Moving Image in conjunction with city schools’ winter break. On February 19 at 2:15, the museum will be hosting “The Red Balloon Animation Adventure,” an hour-long workshop ($5) for children ages six in which kids can create their own little Red Balloon movie.