THE RED BALLOON
Mar 28th, 2008 by Conor McCabe
I just came across this enjoyable little Irish movie - all 2 minutes and 51 seconds of it. I know absolutely nothing about the makers of it, except the following from the youtube site itself:
The Red Balloon - a film by Lauren Brownen, Claire Butler and Conor O’Kelly. The story of a girl and her balloon.
Enjoy.
Wistful, cute and nicely edited. It seems to have a 1960s french existentialist flavour about it.
What is it with red ballons
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048980/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0826711/
I blame yer woman ‘Nena’ from the early 80s..
I think she’s to blame for mullets too.
Where are the other 98 red balloons though ?
Maybe there are body doubles in a couple of those shots…
Another Irish short film, someone has only just told me about (that’d be 19 years late):
Alan Clarke’s ‘Elephant’
Available through the magic of youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRo8Jbaoik0
Thanks for that Dav. Didn’t know it was up there either. Cheers.
i don’t think she is irish.
At the risk of marking myself out as a know-all movie snob bore, it’s a homage to Albert Lamorrisse’s classic 1956 short Le ballon rouge, (you weren’t far wrong Gar), of which there are many on YouTube, and which has recently been referenced in Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Le Voyage du ballon rouge, starring Juliette Binoche. Still, for the means I imagine it was made with, it’s an impressive little piece, with a lot of wit and charm (and how few Irish films have either of those).
Vive la France. We’re getting continental in our film techniques at last.
she has a continental look about her, and this adds taste to the movie,somehow a red head with freckles would not fit the frame.the song brings calm,but i think , the girl from ipanema by tom jobin would be best.dublin/ipanema same difference,anyway check out, the chase,by the balloon project on youtube.
I seem to remember the one and only time I went to see the Flaming Lips live (in the Olympia, in ‘99) they projected the original 50s French short onto the screen during their set - can’t remember during which song(s).
Some kind person seems to have put up fairly good footage from the same tour on Youtube - here’s their standout track of the time :
Flaming Lips - Race for the Prize, Japan 1999
Sans red balloon that one. If you look at the other postings from the same head, there are a dozen or so other tracks from the same tour - you’ll find the red balloon in there somewhere.
So glad you like our film! From the girl with the red balloon!
Well, it’s a good little film, Lauren. Well done!
You might like this one too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duAEO02s-Z4
[…] the makers of the charming ‘The Red Balloon‘ come this following little enterprise - ‘It’s a horrible life‘. […]