Pascal is a little boy who lives in Paris. One morning on his way to school he finds a large red balloon that is wrapped around a street lamp. He climbs up the lamp and retrieves the balloon taking it to school. In the school yard he asks someone to hold it for him while he is in class. He warns them not to let go of it. After school he is on his way home when it begins to rain. He Asks people to hold their umbrellas over the balloon so it doesn’t get wet.
When he gets home be brings the balloon into the apartment but his mother won’t let him keep it inside. She puts the balloon outside the window, but the balloon doesn’t float away. Instead it hovers outside Pascal’s window. Pascal brings the balloon into his room for the night. In the morning he releases it outside his window. He tells the balloon to obey him and be good. Pascal goes downstairs and outside to the street. He calls to the balloon. It floats down to him. Pascal tries to catch the string on the balloon but it eludes him. Finally Pascal walks away. The balloon follows him. Eventually Pascal realizes that the balloon has a mind of its own. They play hide and seek on the way to school. Sometimes Pascal hides, sometimes the balloon hides.
At school the balloon follows Pascal inside. The headmaster locks Pascal up in a detention room for bringing the balloon to school. The balloon follows the headmaster around pestering him until school is over and he lets Pascal out of the detention room.
On the way home Pascal and the red balloon meet a little girl with a blue balloon. The red balloon begins to follow the blue balloon until Pascal takes its string. Then the blue balloon begins to follow the red balloon. Pascal takes the blue balloon by the string and gives it back to the little girl. Just before Pascal gets home a bunch of boys try to take the balloon away from him. He lets go of the string. The balloon floats above the boys out of their reach.
The next day the balloon follows Pascal to church. It doesn’t go well. Pascal and the red balloon are chased out. Pascal spends the day playing with the red balloon. But the boys in the neighborhood are jealous of Pascal having the balloon. They chase Pascal and the balloon until they finally capture it.
“Le Ballon Rouge” AKA “The Red Balloon” was released in 1956 and was written and directed by Albert Lamorisse. It is a short French fantasy film and is only thirty-five minutes long. Lamorisse used his children as actors in the film. His son Pascal plays the lead and his daughter Sabine plays the little girl with the blue balloon.
The film had one of the largest non-theatrical runs in the history of American cinema. Thousands of 16-millimeter prints were distributed to schools across the country. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, the film was popular in elementary classrooms throughout the United States and Canada.
Even though the film has almost no dialogue it won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1957. It is the shortest film to win a major Academy Award. It won several other awards from the Cannes Film Festival 1956, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts 1957, the Prix Louis Delluc 1957 and the National Board of Review 1957.
I hadn’t seen this movie since I was a kid. I had forgotten how charming it actually was. As for the meaning behind “Le Ballon Rouge”, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to look for it. I’ve seen many interpretations, friendship, magic, spirituality, innocence, love, transcendence, the triumph of good over evil, dreams and the cruelty of others to destroy them, and a host of others. Perhaps it’s all of those, perhaps none. I’ve even heard interpretations that the red balloon represents capitalism. Everyone has an opinion and everyone has a theory. I suppose one theory is as good as another. Whatever you get out of it is what it is.