Can you win an Academy Award for screenwriting when your script has no dialogue?
The answer is a definitive “yes,” and the truth of the 1957 Oscar is just one of the magical elements of Albert Lamorisse’s classic short film, “The Red Balloon.”
The deceptively simple tale quietly follows a young boy’s progress through an ancient quarter of Paris. The boy — actually Pascal Lamorisse, the director’s son — discovers a bright red balloon tied to a lamppost, and he quickly shinnies up to grab it. From the muted earth tones and gray rain in nearly every scene, we get the idea there isn’t much color or joy in the boy’s life, and this fat red balloon is a godsend.
Pascal soon finds the jaunty balloon has a mind of its own. It waits for him outside the brutal schoolhouse, it knows that it can’t ride the bus and follows along behind, it has a sixth sense about bullies and how they’d love to pop a juicy balloon with their slingshots.
If you’ve never seen the 30-minute wonder of “The Red Balloon,” I won’t give away any ending clues. Just know that like all beautifully executed fables, this one can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Some have tried to make a New Testament allegory of the tale, involving persecution and resurrection.
Myself, I’d rather not overthink it, but viewing it in those terms can be a good exercise in criticism for any teenagers you have in the room who need to write a final paper on Faulkner or Proust.
We’ll look at a 2007 semi-sequel, “The Flight of the Red Balloon,” in a future column.
“The Red Balloon”
Rated: Not rated, perfectly appropriate for anyone in the family.
Best suited for: The basic tale is aimed at a 6- or 7-year-old, but a film so innovative is a treat for adults and children alike.
