The Red Balloon (1956)

 

The Red Balloon (Le Ballon Rouge) is a rarity among Oscar nominees. It’s a short film that was nominated and won in the category of Original Screenplay, but it wasn’t even nominated in the shorts category. There’s actually very little dialogue in the film except when the main character, a young Parisian boy, talks to the large balloon of the title. The film, which is only thirty-four minutes long, covers three days in the friendship between the boy and the balloon. He discovers it on the first day while on his way to school and quickly discovers that the balloon will follow him and only him. It even waits for him while he’s in school when the headmaster chastises him for bringing it or outside his family’s apartment when his mother refuses to allow it inside. This spectacular quality, of course, makes others jealous, and a group of seemingly older boys begins trying to steal the balloon. They succeed on the third day when the young boy, having been kicked out of church because he brought his balloon with him, leaves it momentarily outside a shop. They attempt to burst the balloon, which is almost as large as the boy, with stones and sticks, prompting an army of balloons from across Paris to descend upon and surround the grieving boy. It’s difficult to watch this sequence, which ends with the boy being lifted up by dozens of colorful balloons so that he can float above the city, without thinking that the filmmakers of Up were obviously inspired by this film. The Red Balloon is a charming film, one often called a children’s fantasy, but it also speaks to the common ways that we are intentionally or unintentionally cruel to each other as well as to the joy and delight that we can derive from our relationships even when no one else can quite understand us. Anyone who watches the film will be captivated by the story and the series of delightful moments (such as when the boy and his balloon meet a little girl with her blue balloon) that it encapsulates. That, too, makes it a rarity.

Oscar Win: Best Original Screenplay