[USED] "LE BALLON ROUGE" Red Balloon

This is a picture book of the 1956 film "The Red Balloon" directed by Albert Lamorisse.

The story is about the friendship between a boy who picks up a red balloon that is stuck on a street lamp on his way to school and the balloon. The boy's innocent love for the balloon is very cute. The boy is played by director Lamorisse's real son, Pascal Lamorisse. On the way, he passes a girl holding a blue balloon, who is Pascal Lamorisse's sister.

At the end of the story, the red balloon is popped by a pachinko ball by some bad kids in the neighborhood who are jealous of the friendship between the boy and the red balloon, and it deflates. Immediately after, many colorful balloons gather from all over the city, and the movie ends with a moving story that far exceeds the viewer's expectations.

The contrast between the scenery of Paris in 1956 and the red balloons floating in the sky is very beautiful in the film. Speaking of Paris of this era, it was during this time that Japanese photographer Ihei Kimura made his first postwar European reporting trip, taking photos of Paris with a Leica and the domestically produced color film that had just been released. (1954-1955) This picture book includes black and white photos, but the charm and the scent of Montmartre at the time are still fully conveyed through this large picture book. As a Francophile, this is a book you definitely want to have.

Author Albert Lamorisse Publisher L’ecole des Loisirs