Flight of the Red Balloon

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Flight of the Red Balloon ★★ Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge 2008

Hou's homage to Albert Lamorisse's 1956 film “The Red Balloon” does have a red balloon, a little boy, and Paris, but Simon (Iteanu) doesn't wander the streets accompanied by the balloon so much as he wanders with his new nanny Song (Fang), a Taiwanese film student who serves as Hou's calm observer. Simon's single mom is frazzled bleach-blonde Suzanne (Binoche), who doesn't seem to be coping with her son, her career, or her emotions very well. Not much actually happens so the film can be something of a slog but it looks beautiful. French with subtitles. 113m/C DVD . FR TW Juliette Binoche, Hippolyte Girardot, Simon Iteanu, Song Fang, Louise Margolin, Anna Sigalevitch; D: Hou Hsiao-Hsien; W: Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Francois Margolin; C: Mark Lee Ping-Bin; M: Constance Lee.