Movie Review

Flight of the Red Balloon (2008)

Reviewed by Lisa Schwarzbaum | Apr 04, 2008

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Lisa Schwarzbaum is a film critic for EW

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EW's GRADE

A-

Details Limited Release: Apr 04, 2008; Rated: Unrated; Length: 115 Minutes; Genre: Drama; With: Juliette Binoche and Simon Iteanu

FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON Song Fang (left) is the nanny caring for the son (Simon Iteanu) of a frazzled... Flight of the Red Balloon, Simon Iteanu

Image credit: Tsai Cheng-Tai

FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON Song Fang (left) is the nanny caring for the son (Simon Iteanu) of a frazzled mom (Juliette Binoche, not pictured) in director Hou Hsiao-hsien's homage to a 1956 French classic

The great Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien expands on the bright, drifty loveliness of Albert Lamorisse's 1956 classic, The Red Balloon, in Flight of the Red Balloon, his lyrical French-language debut, floating notions about loneliness and urban beauty, frazzled adults and buffeted kids. Her hair a telling botch of bleach, Juliette Binoche is outstanding as a wildly untogether single mother who parks her son with a French-speaking Chinese nanny while she whirls and worries. Hou, meanwhile, observes the mess in with a kind, gentle eye in much the same way as the red balloon hovers, patient. A-

Originally posted Apr 02, 2008 Published in issue #986 Apr 11, 2008 Order article reprints

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DVD Review Flight of the Red Balloon

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