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Flight Of The Red Balloon
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (26th January 2009). |
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The Film
 There’s an interesting tension within film, a sort of combativeness that mostly comes up within academia and criticism that loves to flaunt filmmaking as an art unto itself, but at the same time has a certain conception of high and low art which usually results in some films simply being called ‘entertaining’ but disregarded for their artistic merit. At the same time there’s a tendancy for people to see an art film and disreguard it’s merit as entertainment. Often critics get so obsessed with the artistic side of what a film should be they overlook the dramatic need for entertainment within a film (Yes I just re-watched “Ratatouille” (2007), no I’m not trying to copy the amazing speech at the end... Maybe a little.) So when I saw the heaping amount of praise being rattled off for “The Flight of the Red Balloon” (2007) I got a little nervous as the last time I watched a French film with this much Cannes buzz and critic top ten’s it was "Caché" (2005) the most boringly artsy film I’ve ever seen. Thankfully Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s “The Flight of the Red Balloon” doesn’t try to murder your eyes by forcing them to stay open for the entire film, but actually creates a great looking film. The story for the film is apparently inspired by the French short “The Red Balloon” (1951), beginning with a similar idea of a boy and a red balloon which follows him. Though instead of befriending the balloon from the get-go, Simon (Simon Iteanu) begs and pleads for the balloon to follow him, offering it candy and promises, but the balloon only begins to follow after he leaves. Soon we meet Song (Fang Song), Simon’s new nanny, hired by his single mother Suzanne (Juliette Binoche) to take care of him as her emotionally hectic life and job have left her without time. Song is a former film student from Taiwan who befriends Simon and the three begin to support each other, though it becomes quickly apparent that it’s mostly Suzanne that needs the most bolstering. In terms of plot the film does an interesting job of building upon the formula of balloon + child + Paris = awards story, but I’m not entirely sure if the complexity is necessary to the original story. It’s good though that the film soon follows it’s own route, using the balloon more as a metaphor than narrative device. In terms of characters, Song perhaps stands out as the most interesting as Suzanne seems to have too much drama attached and character feels too much like an actor role than a real person. Simon Iteanu does a good job for a child actor, doing a good job even in conversation with the balloon and doesn’t seem to break from charcter too much. As I mentioned earlier perhaps the best part of the film is the directing, the lighting, colors and images are really good looking on the screen and have a nice feel to the entire film. There are some great shots and some good composition that those looking for a good art film will eat up. Yet while the film is incredibly artistically directed, is it the most exciting movie? No. The film experience feels like I’m going to a Museum. The images look good or even great, and I know that they’re supposed to look good and I like the fact that they look good, but it seems to be more of the setting for some great imagery, than an experience unto itself. The whole film I never get drawn into the world of the movie and my mind doesn’t play around with the ideas afterwards. Instead I keep thinking, oh great use of color. Overall it’s a wonderfully composed film but the story and characters never really draw me in to their world so that I become totally engaged. Hou Hsiao-Hsien does a great job of directing and puts together an interesting enough story to keep the film going, but the story and the film together really don’t create something compelling enough to bring me in to the image, instead it keeps reminding me that I’m in a museum looking at a good image rather than trying to immerse me into the film.
Video
Presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, the video transfer for the film is solid, bringing out the nice use of color and the good visual styling of the film. There are a few instances of some artifacts or specs popping up within the frame, but it never really becomes an issue with the film itself or its watchability.
Audio
Similar to the images, the French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is a great representation of the audio. The sound works well in a 5.1 setup and the soundtrack that occasionally plays sounds great, the rest of the audio keeps up to the same quality and the transfer does a good job of keeping all of the levels and balance intact. Subtitles are available in English, English for the Hearing Impaired and Spanish.
Extras
There are no extras on the disc, only a trio of start-up bonus trailers which are: - “Mister Lonely” runs for 1 minute and 49 seconds. - “Beautiful Ohio” runs for 1 minute and 34 seconds. - “Love Songs” runs for 2 minutes and 33 seconds.
Overall
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