While Hou's cinematic techniques are as sound as ever, this time it feels as if they're being used to peer into nothing of particular, specific significance.
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11/14/08
The Flight of the Red Balloon (2008)
78 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 76
Fresh: 59
Rotten:17
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Consensus: Hou Hsiao-hsien's remake of the 1956 classic is unhurried, contemplative, and visually rapturous.
Theatrical Release: Apr 4, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: In 1956, Albert Lamorisse made THE RED BALLOON, a short in which a young boy, played by his son, makes friends with a red balloon. Some 50 years later, Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao Hsien has made his first French-language film, the charming and... [More]
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu, Hippolyte Girardot, Song Fang
Director: Hou Hsaio-Hsien
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Reviews for The Flight of the Red Balloon
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10/18/08
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10/18/08
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10/18/08
Top Critic The question is whether it really makes sense to turn Lamorisse's fanciful original film into a downer family drama; it's sort of like doing a modern-day version of "Narnia" where the kids never find the wardrobe.
09/04/08
A winsome homage to Albert Lamorisse's classic children's fantasy short film of 1956 The Red Balloon.
08/02/08
There’s no editing within a scene, no close-ups. No incidental music. Just life, or a pretty accurate simulation of life.
07/11/08
Lamorisse's film was a third of this length, and was lighter than air. Hou's is about the weight of air itself on a muggy day, and whether that sustains over 113 minutes will be between each viewer and his attention span.
06/23/08
Top Critic The slow-moving Red Balloon really doesn't stack up favorably with its obvious inspiration, the delightful 1956 short fantasy The Red Balloon.
06/12/08
In a film that feels so unstructured, these scenes reveal how much craft and structure actually go into Hou's films, how he endows his film with such meticulous layering of themes and ideas.
06/08/08
Even when [Hou is] working with simple ingredients, he brings along his masterful sense of space, timing, and everyday observation, which gives an actress like Binoche ample room to shine.
06/03/08
I fear many viewers may lose patience. But those who stay to the end of this delicate and beautiful film will be amply rewarded.
05/30/08
It’s all humdrum and low key without any redeeming compositional elegance or symmetry.
05/29/08
Miraculously avoids leaden 'significance' in favor of a sagacious lived-in-ness.
05/23/08
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March 09, 2008:
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Related Forums for The Flight of the Red Balloon
(2008 USA release)-Hou Hsiao Hsien's FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON opens April 4th in NYC
by: ReelReviewer.com 4/16
by: ReelReviewer.com 4/16
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