Flight of the Red Balloon

May 17, 2007

1h 57m

★ 6.2

Overview

The first part in a new series of films produced by Musée d'Orsay, 'Flight of the Red Balloon' tells the story of a French family as seen through the eyes of a Chinese student. The film was shot in August and September 2006 on location in Paris. This is Hou Hsiao-Hsien's first Western film. It is based on the classic French short The Red Balloon directed by Albert Lamorisse.

Genres

Family

Drama

Production Companies

3H Productions

Margo Films

Les Films du Lendemain

ARTE France Cinéma

Musée d'Orsay

Flight of the Red Balloon Trailers

Cast

Suzanne

Juliette Binoche

Simon

Simon Iteanu

Song

Song Fang

Marc

Hippolyte Girardot

Louise

Louise Margolin

Anna

Anna Sigalevitch

Flore

Flore Vannier-Moreau

When Madame Adelaide Bonfamille leaves her fortune to Duchess and her children—Bonfamille’s beloved family of cats—the butler plots to steal the money and kidnaps the legatees, leaving them out on a country road. All seems lost until the wily Thomas O’Malley Cat and his jazz-playing alley cats come to the aristocats’ rescue.

5.8

Snow White

Aug 7, 2005

The life of 20-year-old Nico from upper class Zurich is all party, sex and drugs when she meets Paco, the front man of a rap band. She finds herself drawn to his independent, creative and profound way of life, so different from her own. With naiveté and infinite self-confidence, she tries to adopt his lifestyle - without anticipating the consequences.

7.2

Quills

Nov 22, 2000

In a Napoleonic era insane asylum, an inmate, the irrepressible Marquis De Sade, fights a battle of wills against a tyrannically prudish doctor.

6.7

Moulin Rouge

Dec 23, 1952

In 1890 Paris, Moulin Rouge is a nightclub where crippled artist Toulouse-Lautrec feels like he fits in. In the following years, he meets two women who provide an opportunity for him to find true love.

6.9

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

Jan 10, 1992

A suburban family chooses seemingly sweet Peyton Flanders as their newborn's nanny. Only much later does the infant's mother, Claire Bartel, realize Peyton's true intentions -- to destroy Claire and replace her in the family. The nail-biting suspense builds quickly in this chilling psychological thriller about deception and bitter revenge.

7.1

The Crocodiles

Mar 26, 2009

Ten-year-old Hannes, growing up with his young, poor and single mother wants to join the coolest gang in the area, the Vorstadtkrokodile. When the ‘entry test’ goes wrong, Hannes’s life is saved by Kai, who is desperate to join too but is wheelchair bound and unable to even run away when things get hot. Hannes would accept Kai but the other gang members don’t seem happy to accept a handicapped member...

5.9

Dennis the Menace

Jun 9, 1993

Mr. Wilson's ever-present annoyance comes in the form of one mischievous kid named Dennis. But he'll need Dennis's tricks to uncover a collection of gold coins that go missing when a shady drifter named Switchblade Sam comes to town.

6.6

Private Property

Sep 1, 2006

Pascale leads a lonely life with her adult sons François and Thierry at a rural estate subsidized by her ex-husband's alimony payments. When Pascale falls for neighbor Jan, she makes plans to move in with him. But Pascale's twin sons -- loafers who treat her like a servant and refuse to accept the responsibilities of adulthood -- won't let her go. The family remains locked in a stalemate until someone makes a startling move.

7.1

Reprise

Sep 8, 2006

Two competitive friends, fueled by literary aspirations and youthful exuberance, endure the pangs of love, depression and burgeoning careers.

6.2

Sabrina

Dec 15, 1995

Sabrina Fairchild, a chauffeur's daughter, grew up at the Long Island estate of the wealthy Larrabee family enchanted with their sparkling world of privilege and wealth, but she's especially enamored of younger son David, a charming playboy. After the once plain Sabrina returns from a sojourn in Paris transformed into a glamorous young woman, she at long last catches David's eye. In a calculated effort to manipulate David away from her and into a more financially advantageous marriage, formidable older brother Linus devises a plan to keep them apart.

5.8

The Pink Panther

Feb 10, 2006

When the coach of the France soccer team is killed by a poisoned dart in the stadium in the end of a game, and his expensive and huge ring with the diamond Pink Panther disappears, the ambitious Chief Inspector Dreyfus assigns the worst police inspector Jacques Clouseau to the case.

5.2

Gito the Ungrateful

Jan 2, 1992

Back home in Bujumbura with a Parisian diploma in his pocket and expecting to walk into a civil service job, Gito finds himself both unemployed and caught between two women: his current French girlfriend Christine and his local old flame Flora.

4.7

Turn It Up

Sep 6, 2000

Trying to bootstrap his way out of Brooklyn's mean streets is Diamond, a rap musician. With his long-time pal Gage acting as his manager, he's trying to lay down a demo tape with cut-rate studio time. To pay the bills, he and Gage run drugs for "Mr. B." Inside a week, Diamond's beloved mother dies suddenly, his father appears after an absence of 12 years and wants a relationship, and his girlfriend Kia tells him she's pregnant, asking him if he's ready to be a father. Gage steals $100,000 in a multiple-felony robbery so that Diamond can record a full album, not knowing it's Mr. B's money he's taken. B wants his money, Diamond wants his music, Tia wants an answer.

6.2

Avenue Montaigne

Feb 15, 2006

A young woman arrives in Paris where she finds a job as a waitress in bar next on Avenue Montaigne that caters to the surrounding theaters and the wealthy inhabitants of the area. She will meet a pianist, a famous actress and a great art collector, and become acquainted with the "luxurious" world her grandmother has told her about since her childhood.

6.2

Shall We Kiss?

Sep 4, 2007

When Gabriel and Emilie meet by chance, he offers her a ride, and they spend the evening talking, laughing and getting along famously. At the end of the night, Emilie declines Gabriel's offer of "a kiss without consequences". Emilie admonishes him that the kiss could have unexpected consequences, and tells him a story, unfolding in flashbacks, about the impossibility of indulging your desires without affecting someone else's life.

7.1

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Jun 21, 1996

Isolated bell-ringer Quasimodo wishes to leave Notre Dame tower against the wishes of Judge Claude Frollo, his stern guardian and Paris' strait-laced Minister of Justice. His first venture to the outside world finds him Esmeralda, a kind-hearted and fearless Romani woman who openly stands up to Frollo's tyranny.

5.9

Lovers

Dec 8, 1999

A French woman falls in love with a Yugoslavian man, not realizing that he is an illegal immigrant.

7.2

Queen Margot

May 13, 1994

Paris, Kingdom of France, August 18, 1572. To avoid the outbreak of a religious war, the Catholic princess Marguerite de Valois, sister of the feeble King Charles IX, marries the Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre.

6.3

Eastern Cross

Jul 23, 1991

15-year-old Elfie literally and metaphorically inhabits a no-man’s-land between the two Germanies shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The film deploys a neorealist aesthetic to reinforce the difficulties confronting the girl, and by inference, Germany.