This delicate, snail-paced slice of Parisian life is part remake, part-homage to Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 film The Red Balloon, in a which a boy is followed around the streets of the French capital by a helium-filled crimson bladder with a life of its own. This time it is Taiwanese director Hsiao-hsien Hou who uses the floating orb for all sorts of emblematic, metaphorical brain stimulation, while Montmartre and Notre Dame shimmer and hum away in the background.
The balloon-stalked youngster in this film is the sweetly chilled out, piano and Playstation playing Simon (Simon Iteanu), whose single mother Suzanne (Juliette Binoche, bleached blonde and stressed) is juggling her responsibilities to him with her work as a puppeteer/voice actress, while also dealing with troublesome rent-owing tenants. She employs as a nanny Song (Song Fang), a Chinese film student, who not only gives us a focal point for getting to know the intricacies of Simon and Suzanne’s world, but also ties this and the original film together by hitting the streets with her digicam, claiming Lamorisse’s classic as inspiration.
It’s self-referentially artistic, verging on the soporific in places, but there’s no doubting the observational perfection and gentle beauty of Hou’s direction – all reflections, shadows and lingering close-ups. Binoche is typically superb too – all the dialogue in the film was improvised and you really do feel like you’re peeking nosily in at someone’s real life. Add in those glistening shots of spires and cobblestones (avec ballon rouge) and you have a thrill-free but masterfully crafted couple of hours.
