Le Voyage du ballon rouge (2007)
Directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou

Film Review

Intended as a respectful homage to Albert Lamorisse's classic 1956 short film Le Ballon rouge, Le Voyage du ballon rouge was commissioned by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris as part of a series of films to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of its opening in December 1986.  It was directed by the highly acclaimed Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao Hsien, his first French language film.  It was in fact only the director's second film to be made outside his home country - the first being Café Lumière, an affectionate homage to the great Japanese cineaste Yasujiro Ozu, which was shot in Japan in 2003.  Prior to this, Hou had garnered considerable attention both at home and abroad with his taut minimalist dramas - notably A City of Sadness (1989) - revolving around the troubled history of Taiwan.

Hou's characteristic use of long takes and penchant for beautifully balanced composition (no doubt influenced by such Oriental masters as Ozu and Mizoguchi) give the film an alluring visual quality that sooths the mind as much as it pleases the eye.  Unfortunately this does not quite make up for the film's obvious dearth of narrative content.  Whilst the film is visually enchanting and succeeds in melding naturalism and visual poetry, it feels frustratingly lacking in substance and looks like something ambling blindly in the arid wastes between documentary and social drama, lacking both narrative thrust and believable characters that an audience can engage with.

Juliette Binoche's star presence does more harm than good, as her portrayal of a stressed-out single parent is neither endearing nor particularly convincing.  It is true that Le Voyage du ballon rouge has something of the indefinable whimsical charm of Lamorisse's timeless mid-50s classic but it has precious little of that earlier film's coherence and devastating emotional power.  Had this been a short film it might have worked, but languorously dragged out to feature length its appeal soon wears thin.  A rare disappointing effort from one of the few truly gifted auteur filmmakers of our time.

Film Synopsis

Susanne is a Parisian single mother who is far too preoccupied with her marionette show to attend to the needs of her two young children, Simon and Louise.  In the end, realising she is neglecting her offspring, she decides to hire a Taiwanese film student, Song Fang, as a child minder.  The seven year-old Simon develops a particularly close bond with Song Fang, and as these two happy souls walk the streets of Paris they imagine they are being followed by a mysterious red balloon...