THE FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (LE VOYAGE DU BALLOON ROUGE) World Cinema

Made in conjunction with the Musee d’Orsay, and inspired by Albert Lamorisse’s classic family film LE BALLON ROUGE, master filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien moves away from his usual investigations of Taiwanese identity, both historical and contemporary, and visits Paris. The result is a subtle meditation on the themes of alienation and life as an outsider.

Suzanne (the superb Juliette Binoche) works in puppet theater (a reoccurring Hou motif) but can barely manage her job between her demanding neighbors and the needs of her seven-year-old son Simon. And so she hires Song, a Taiwanese film student, to look after Simon. Emphasizing the lyrical imagery of the color red-a symbol of good luck in Chinese culture-and contrasting the desaturated, cold black-and-white tones of Parisian streets with the warm color and messiness of Suzanne’s home, Hou develops the interplay between Suzanne’s chaotic inner life and the beautiful but impersonal rhythms of a contemporary European metropolis.

Hou’s succession of delicately observed everyday events, alternating between moments of sadness and rapture, produces a quietly exhilarating experience.