"Le Voyage du ballon rouge" (2007) was shown in the United States with the title"Flight of the Red Balloon." The film was co-written and directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou.
Juliette Binoche stars as Suzanne, who is described as a puppeteer, but who actually directs theatrical works that feature puppets. (Suzanne also provides the voices of the puppets.) Suzanne's life is hectic. Besides the theater she has to contend with an absent (for two years) boyfriend, her daughter from a previous marriage, subletting tenants who don't pay their rent, and the care of her school-age son Simon. Suzanne hires a young Asian film student- -Fang Song--to watch the boy. Song brings an air of tranquility into Suzanne's and Simon's life, and into the movie.
Meanwhile, in homage to the classic film, "The Red Balloon," a red balloon hovers near Song and Simon as they travel around Paris. In fact, Song decides to make a film-within-a-film, featuring Simon and, of course, a red balloon.
Director Hsiao-hsien Hou is fascinated by mirrors and glass. Many of the scenes are filmed as reflections, or we see the balloon through glass that is also partially reflecting a room or a gallery. Nothing is clear-cut or simple--images and the people they portray are complicated and opaque.
Juliette Binoche is one of the most beautiful actors on the screen today. However, in this film, her hair is dyed blonde, and it doesn't enhance her appearance. Her clothes appear to represent whatever she could find quickly in her cluttered apartment, and she's not elegant. No director could make Ms. Binoche unattractive, but in this movie the emphasis is upon her life, not her appearance. Ms. Binoche and Fang Song make a wonderful pair, and the people that enter their lives--piano tuners, furniture movers, piano teachers, puppet masters--are effortlessly drawn into their orbit.
This is a wonderful movie if you don't mind a slow, unhurried pace, a lack of traditional plot, and no explosive climax or last-minute denouement. We join Ms. Binoche's troubled life, and Fang Song's quiet life, and we get to walk through Paris alongside them.
Juliette Binoche stars as Suzanne, who is described as a puppeteer, but who actually directs theatrical works that feature puppets. (Suzanne also provides the voices of the puppets.) Suzanne's life is hectic. Besides the theater she has to contend with an absent (for two years) boyfriend, her daughter from a previous marriage, subletting tenants who don't pay their rent, and the care of her school-age son Simon. Suzanne hires a young Asian film student- -Fang Song--to watch the boy. Song brings an air of tranquility into Suzanne's and Simon's life, and into the movie.
Meanwhile, in homage to the classic film, "The Red Balloon," a red balloon hovers near Song and Simon as they travel around Paris. In fact, Song decides to make a film-within-a-film, featuring Simon and, of course, a red balloon.
Director Hsiao-hsien Hou is fascinated by mirrors and glass. Many of the scenes are filmed as reflections, or we see the balloon through glass that is also partially reflecting a room or a gallery. Nothing is clear-cut or simple--images and the people they portray are complicated and opaque.
Juliette Binoche is one of the most beautiful actors on the screen today. However, in this film, her hair is dyed blonde, and it doesn't enhance her appearance. Her clothes appear to represent whatever she could find quickly in her cluttered apartment, and she's not elegant. No director could make Ms. Binoche unattractive, but in this movie the emphasis is upon her life, not her appearance. Ms. Binoche and Fang Song make a wonderful pair, and the people that enter their lives--piano tuners, furniture movers, piano teachers, puppet masters--are effortlessly drawn into their orbit.
This is a wonderful movie if you don't mind a slow, unhurried pace, a lack of traditional plot, and no explosive climax or last-minute denouement. We join Ms. Binoche's troubled life, and Fang Song's quiet life, and we get to walk through Paris alongside them.