Le Ballon Rouge

Today in College as part of our styling breif, we watched the 1965 Le Ballon Rouge directed by Albert Lamorisse.
The film is just 34 minutes and follows the adventures of a young boy and his balloon, as there is no narration the music tells the story which makes the film even more interging.
The boy in the film appears lonely and isolated and so his balloon takes on a friendship role e.g. as the boys at school the balloon waits for him outside. There gradually becomes a strong relationship between the boy and balloon, I also see a mother and son bond.  In one of the scenes the boy is crossing the road with the balloon and grabs onto its string as a mother would hold onto there childs hand. It is almost asif they are both dependent on one an other and need eachother as a child needs his mother.
The colour of the bike also contains significance, the balloon is red which indicated warmth, love and security which is definatly portrayed through the scenes. However there is also a mischeivious side to the balloon and almost playful which is also the charcteristcs of the colour red.

Many films, adverts, paintings and music video's have been inspired by this film. Such as Mark Ronson - ride my bike, in this however the bike replaces the balloon and there is a connection between Ronson and the biek.
Adverts such as Miss Dior; Cherie by Sofia Coppola have also had clear insparation from this film, where the multi coloured balloons are let loose and at the end of the advert the model is being uplifted by the multicoloured balloons which cearly reflects the ending of Le Ballons Rouge.



http://www.youtube.com/embed/rVELTxKRoHA