THE CURBSIDE CRITERION: THE RED BALLOON

November 3, 2026

(Here at Hammer to Nail are all about true independent cinema. But we also have to tip our hat to the great films of yesteryear that continue to inspire filmmakers and cinephiles alike. This week Jonathan Marlow lifts off with The Red Balloon, the charming and whimsical all-time great.)

Multiple-award-winning Le ballon rouge—aka The Red Balloon and, tellingly, not The Boy with the Red Balloon—is, ostensibly, a film about a balloon (as you might expect from the title). An animated inanimate object as the protagonist. Specifically, a red balloon. Not merely red! The brightest, most vivid red in a drab, grey world.

Le ballon rouge is a pantomime. Dialogue-free (or mostly) and a long-time highlight—one among many—of the Janus / Criterion catalogue, its U.S. distributor.

Concisely summarised, in mid-1950s Paris, a lonely little boy happens upon the titular balloon. Fantastically enough, the balloon follows him wherever he goes! Over a little more than a half-hour, the rogue rouge goes from friend and companion for one child to an object of envy and desire for many others, much to the persistent dismay of a school headmaster and other adults along the way. Following assorted adventures and a feverish melee, the helium-filled ellipsoid inspires a collective response from other stringed-spheres. From one, many! Aloft!

Written / directed / produced by Albert Lamorisse, starring his son Pascal as the “petit garçon” and, briefly, his daughter Sabine (as “la petite fille au ballon bleu”). Le ballon rouge [The Red Balloon] is a family-affair, made for families! Photographed by Edmond Séchan (who later was behind the camera for the globe-trotting L’Homme de Rio [That Man from Rio]) with a charming score by Maurice Leroux (who subsequently composed film-music for an eclectic bunch, including Nicholas Ray, Jean-Luc Godard and Walerian Borowczyk, among others). Le ballon rouge understandably won the Palme d’Or du court métrage [Golden Palm for Best Short Film] at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956, then picked-up the Academy Award for “Best Writing / Best Screenplay – Original” the following year. Celebrated? An inflated reputation, indeed.

[When it premiered on U.S. television in 1961, the presentation was introduced by actor Ronald Reagan (who ran for governor of California a half-decade later). He gained little from the theme of the film, it seems, subsequently.]

The tale is permeated with assorted threats. Risks at school. Intrusions from street-vendors (where the balloon initially “sees” its own reflection and, potentially, comprehends its limitations). At one point, early-on, the viewer is presented with the silhouette of a young boy and a cat. The balloon is not unlike that cat. Playful. Elusive. Similarly possessed.

Perceived in its simplicity, we may possess something. Others might want that thing. The “having” and “wanting” could provoke a fundamental Judeo-Christian conflict, something religiosity might resolve? There will be a martyr (if such circumstances could be referred to in that form). There will be a sacrifice.

[Much of the neighbourhood where Le ballon rouge was filmed was demolished shortly thereafter. The film remains, inadvertently, an historical record of the area of that era.]

On the occasion of sharing this celebrated short with a teenager and his grandmother (or, arguably, “foisted upon”), what follows was the result of their back-and-forth commentary:

“In a few words, what does Le ballon rouge [The Red Balloon] evoke for you?”
Teenager: “Childhood imagination.”

Grandmother: “Cute!”

“For (or to) whom does the short speak?”
Teenager: “Outsiders.”

Grandmother: “The balloon needs a friend.”
[I suppose that the boy needs a friend as well.]

“Upon its resolution, what is the overriding sensation?”
Teenager: “Unfairness.”

Grandmother: “I feel sorry for the kid.”

The young. The young-at-heart. A short for all-ages. A short for all-time!