The Red Balloon

The horses in Denys Colomb Daunant’s dream poem are the white beasts of the marshlands of the Camargue in South West France. Daunant was haunted by these creatures. His obsession was first visualized when he wrote the autobiographical script for Albert Lamorisse’s award-winning 1953 film White Mane. In this short the beauty of the horses is captured with a variety of film techniques and by Jacques Lasry’s beautiful electronic score.

A 1978 French documentary film directed by Albert Lamorisse about the landscape of Iran. Lamorisse was killed in a helicopter crash while filming the documentary, during a helicopter-tour of Iran. His widow completed the film, based on his production notes, and released the film eight years later in 1978.

An Arab boy, Abdullah, loves his donkey, Bim, but another boy, Massoud, who also happens to be a prince, is jealous of Abdullah and his relationship with Bim, so Massoud steals the donkey and plays mean tricks on him, such as painting him and trying to cut his ears off. Abdullah tries to rescue Bim but is caught by palace guards and is imprisoned. Realizing Abdullah's love for his donkey, Massoud becomes ashamed of his meanness and frees Bim and Abdullah. However, the donkey eats Massoud's father's lunch and is taken to a butcher. Abdullah and Massoud try to rescue Bim from the butcher, but robbers get there first and steal the donkey along with the butcher's goods. The robbers escape to the sea, and Abdullah and Massoud stage one last rescue attempt with all of their friends to try to save Bim.

In the south of France, in a vast plain region called the Camargue, lives White Mane, a magnificent stallion and the leader of a herd of wild horses too proud to let themselves be broken by humans. Only Folco, a young fisherman, manages to tame him. A strong friendship grows between the boy and the horse, as the two go looking for the freedom that the world of men won’t allow them.

A burglar joins the circus to escape the police. Yet, he continues his thefts during his off-hours and gets involved in the problems of people around him, while also romancing one of the other circus performers.

A small child, fascinated by a lighter-than-air balloon, clambers aboard. The balloon takes flight, lifting the child upward to an amazing adventure. The land-bound adults have conniptions as the balloon wafts by; the child has nothing more than a great time.

A 20-minute hymn to "unseen Paris" which incorporates soaring aerial shots of the Parisian skyline accompanied by commentary written by Roger Glachant and narrated by Jean Piat. Shot using Lamorisse's "Helivision," a technique involving fitting a camera to the front of a helicopter for smooth tracker of locations.