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.
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
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...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.