Film: The Red Balloon (1956) & The White Mane (1953) Double Feature
Date: 11/26/07
Place: Nuart, Santa Monica

Thanks to celebrating a new DVD release by Janus, I got to see my favorite short film of all time: The Red Balloon. It's French; it's practically silent; it's close to perfection. Directed by Albert Lamorisse, who is also famous for inventing the board game Risk, he cast his son as the precocious little boy who befriends a balloon. I remember watching this on rainy days as a child. My parents watched this as children. With adult eyes the poverty of urban Paris during the 1950s is much more evident, as well as how cruel children can be to each other. Seeing it on the big screen doesn't break any illusions. That balloon gives a fantastic performance. On a completely restored print, you don't see any strings.

The White Mane is Lamorisse's earlier short. These are by no means 10 minute quickies, but cinematic novellas of 30+ minutes each. Like the Red Balloon, but in b&w and with a horse, a poor boy befriends a wild stallion and the film culminates in a bittersweet existential conclusion. The photography could be a nature film and the over-dubbed soundtrack is simply charming. Again, Lamorisse gives a lesson to the aspiring filmmaker that a story doesn't need a lot of dialog or fancy camera work to make it work - it just has to be real.

The Nuart gave everyone a red balloon to take home after the screening. Out on the streets we were all children. If that's not the definition of magic at a movie house I don't what is.

Labels: film journal