Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu, Fang Song
Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou

This film has already premiered at the French Film Festival and will be on general release at the end of May. Director Hsiao-hsien Hou has a massive reputation for outstanding but exceptionally slow cinema, most of which is set in Taiwan.

This is his first French production. The Flight of the Red Balloon sets itself up as a strange remake of Albert Lamorisse’s acclaimed 1957 film The Red Balloon. In both films a red balloon, with a life of its own, follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.

Hou adds Song (Fang Song) to the story, a young visiting Taiwanese film student making her own homage to Lamorisse, who is also the babysitter for the little boy, Simon (Simon Iteanu).

Juliette Binoche plays Simon’s erratic mother Suzanne in a really interesting role for her. It’s a shock to hear the gorgeous ways that she voices the characters of the traditional puppet theatre Suzanne runs.

By Megan Carrigy.

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