Red Balloon is a fantasy short film filmed in 1956, with only 2 lines in 34 minutes, but it is one of the most important works in the history of French cinema. Hou Xiaoxian's "Red Balloon Journey" filmed in 2007 is a tribute to it, including in "Flying House Tour" We can also see the shadow of "Red Balloon".
The short film tells the story of a young boy who rescues a red balloon trapped in a street lamp on his way to school, and the red balloon has been inseparable from him ever since. This brought great happiness to the little boy, but also caused the jealousy of the other boys. They snatch the balloons and destroy them. Eventually the little boy looked at the shattered red balloons and slowly lifted off into the distance under the tug of a group of multicolored balloons.
Such a seemingly simple story has won the favor of many film festival judges, winning the 29th Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the 9th Cannes Film Festival Short Film Palme d'Or. Among them, the anthropomorphic image of the red balloon is a classic application of metaphorical techniques, leading us to appreciate the paris style after World War II from the perspective of the red balloon. The typical dualistic opposition setting in the film, on the one hand, is a critique of the reality of the adult world and the inherent evil of human nature, on the other hand, it also promotes the beauty of hope in the difficult situation, which gives us many enlightenments in the difficult situation.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, perfect visual and auditory effects combined to create a vivid red balloon anthropomorphic image</h1>
In 1956, cinema was quite mature, and the director of "Red Balloon", La Morris, still told us such a fantasy story in near-black and white. Since one of the protagonists of the film is the ineffable object Red Balloon, the lines in the whole film are so few that they are almost negligible. And it is such a short film with a dim picture and few lines that brings the highly metaphorically anthropomorphic red balloon to life. This is mainly due to the use of a large number of long shots in the film, the contrasting picture color, and the highly infectious soundtrack, which combines to bring the audience a perfect visual and auditory perception.
1. Use a large number of long shots to create a vivid anthropomorphic image of the red balloon, and interact with the audience emotionally and spiritually
The appearance of the red balloon is not special, it is wrapped around the street lamp helplessly, until the little boy who passes by climbs on the street lamp and unties it, and pulls it tightly in his hand. At this time, the red balloon was just an ordinary object, and all its movements were followed by the little boy's lens. The boy took it home from school until he was thrown out of the window by the boy's grandmother, and the red balloon began to show its vitality.
It drifted back to the boy's window to meet the little boy in the morning. It followed closely behind the little boy's car, fast and slow, high and low, accurately avoiding obstacles on the way. The boy looked into his eyes and reached out to interact with it, and the two little friends played happily.
A large number of similar long shots are used in the film to create an anthropomorphic image of red balloons: boys play hide-and-seek with red balloons, red balloons flirt with adults and classmates, and even red balloons talk to blue balloons. These long shots that are independent of each other in time and space and have their own continuous shots, use the technique of tracking the characters to express the dynamic red balloon, and express its attitude and feelings to the people around it smoothly and naturally, so that its image is not a dull dead thing, but a cute life with self-awareness like the protagonist, and also evokes the audience's yearning for innocence and beauty.
And when the red balloon is hit by the bad boy and falls to the ground, the same group of shots, statically focusing on the red balloon, let us watch it slowly collapse, and struggle to float up. Time seems to be magnified, and our hearts are hanging with it. Until a snap, one foot stomped on it. A strong emotional impact instantly swept through the audience's heart, and a living life disappeared before our eyes. The long shot shows all this in its entirety without reservation, and the struggle in the early stage and the demise of the ending form a strong contrast in one shot, deeply infecting the hearts of every moviegoer.
2. The dim main picture and the gorgeous red balloon form a strong visual contrast, highlighting the waste of post-war Paris and focusing on hope
The impression of Paris should be as rich in color and exquisite composition as "Angel Amelie", and full of romance and art like oil paintings. The Paris in "Red Balloon" is gray and simple, full of gloomy colors.
The film unfolds under a gloomy sky, with mottled, dilapidated buildings everywhere. In the supposedly vibrant campus, there stood a lifeless tree without leaves. The clothes of pedestrians on the road are mostly monotonous colors such as black, white and gray. It's hard to imagine that this is the romantic capital of Paris.
Some people praised the director's advanced control of the color of this picture, but in fact, these gray tones were the most realistic presentation in the context of the French era at that time.
The film was shot in the late 1950s, a decade after the end of World War II, at a time when the French Fourth And Fifth Republics alternated, and the country's economic and social problems were prominent. France has not yet recovered from the effects of the post-war period and has ushered in new challenges. The constant colonial wars and economic crises had caused unemployment to a large number of people, and the lives of the people were gray and france as a whole was gray.
In this gray darkness, only the red balloon is gorgeous and eye-catching, so that the audience's eyes are focused on this. Red has always been a very deep color, it symbolizes passion and hope. This red balloon contrasts strongly with the grayness of the main environment, and its wanton beating and playing brings a touch of life to the bleak city, and also indicates the hope that Paris is in ruins.
3. The rich soundtrack replaces the dialogue lines to describe the characters, set off the atmosphere, and control the rhythm
There are almost no dialogue lines in the whole film, and the plot is expressed in addition to the vivid performances of the actors, but also thanks to the rich background soundtrack. The short 34-minute film has 9 soundtracks, which perfectly fit the course of the story.
The friendship between the little boy and the red balloon goes through four stages. At the beginning, it was a mutual trial and run-in, because there was no line, the red balloon did not even have an expression action, and the collision of this run-in period could only be expressed through music, and the music at this time used long syllables of various bass tones to set off a slightly eerie atmosphere.
The friendship between the two gradually warms up, and the music replaces the dialogue to show the friendly interaction between the boy and the red balloon, and in the beating and cheerful music, the two play and chase hide-and-seek. The funny music mobilizes the emotions of the audience, becoming more and more joyful, making people feel the purity and sincerity of the boy's friendship with the red balloon.
When the friendship between the two encounters a challenge, it is also the climax of the whole play, the back music is closed in time, and the stage of the sound is handed over to the boys' rapid running. The beautiful atmosphere created in the early stage suddenly stopped, and the sound of footsteps seemed to smash into the hearts of the audience and affect the hearts of the audience.
It wasn't until the red balloon burst that the music sounded again, melodious and bright. Drawing the audience out of the sad feelings of the destruction of the red balloon, following the music, and greeting the balloons floating from all over the city, the atmosphere of the film quickly changes from negative to positive, and more emphasis is on expressing the hope brought by the latter.
It can be seen that in the entire narrative of this film, the soundtrack plays a pivotal role. It makes up for the lack of character description of the lines, expressing different emotions through different soundtracks in the same scene, making the whole story full and touching.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, using the red balloon as a clue, from the attitude of the people around it, to show a deeper meaning</h1>
The film is a typical binary opposition, with red balloons and little boys as the front camp, and adults and bad children as the negative camp. Through the attitude of the characters of the opposite camp to the red balloon, it shows the indifference of the real society and the inherent evil of human nature.
1. The rejection and expulsion of red balloons by adults shows the indifference and lack of innocence in real society
When the red balloon is still an ordinary balloon in the hands of the little boy, people are friendly and accepting of the little boy:
The little boy was waiting for the car on the side of the road, and the aunt next to him was afraid that he was too close to the road and dangerous, so she stopped him;
The little boy is late for class and gives the balloon to the school sweeper, who gladly helps;
It was raining heavily after school, and he slipped into the umbrellas of pedestrians to hide from the rain, and everyone was happy to share umbrellas with him.
And when the red balloon shows one side of life, everything becomes different:
The bus driver refuses to board the red balloon;
The boy's grandmother threw the red balloon from the window;
The school's teacher drives the red balloon;
The principal turns a blind eye to red balloon calls for help;
Red balloons are forbidden to enter during church services.
Humans are social animals, highly tolerant of their own kind, but naturally repellent of others. This is the experience that social growth teaches to adults. The red balloon is like such a useless society, an unrelated race outlier, its appearance disrupts the normal order, harms the interests of adults, and needs to be excluded and expelled.
In the world of the little boy's innocence, Red Balloon is a child who is as lively and cute as he is, and is his friend. We yearn for this innocence and affirmation of its beauty, but we are deeply involved in the various interests of the real society. The attitude of adults to red balloons in the play is the greatest irony of people who lack innocence and emotional indifference in real society.
2. The robbery, possession and destruction of red balloons by bad children are the embodiment of the inherent evil of human nature
Cervantes said that "jealousy is the source of all evil", the seven deadly sins also discuss the evil of jealousy and greed of human nature, and in this film, the children's jealousy and greed for the male protagonist to have a red balloon make us witness the gradual fall of human nature.
They started out with a simple jump in an attempt to catch a red balloon floating in the air. But gradually this envy turned into jealousy that drove them crazy. The bad boys began to ambush and rob, and they hid in the little boy's way home by surprise, failing once or twice and still not giving up. Finally, when the red balloon fell alone, he found an opportunity to take it away.
I thought they were just jealous and wanted to have a red balloon, but they far underestimated the evil of human nature. The bad boys tethered red balloons to empty ruins as targets and shoot with slingshots. It was as if a cute child dressed in red was struggling in the air, making a silent cry with all his might. The bad boys were still laughing, the slingshot was overwhelmed with the stones, and the red balloon was finally shot down, it slowly fell, slowly collapsed, and finally shattered by a foot.
They are just children, and the jealousy and greed of human nature are vividly expressed in them. Xun Zi said that sex is inherently evil, and that emotional desires such as food color, mood and anger, likes and dislikes, and lust are human nature, and all people are the same. There is no such thing as a gift in morals. In the dark social background, without the positive environment and guidance of human nature, children's jealousy and greed have developed into a great evil that can be destroyed without getting it, and they laugh and do not know it.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, the red balloon is a symbol of good things, conveying to us the hope of distress</h1>
The film is only 34 minutes short, but its content covers most of the content facing human society, friendship, love, faith, war, etc. The red balloon has different symbolic meanings in these plots, metaphorically depicting the hopeful and beautiful side of different social elements.
Friendship: The lonely little boy gains a loyal friendship from the red balloon, and they accompany each other and support each other.
Love: The love of red balloons and blue balloons, full of the romance of chance encounters, although it is only a small episode, it gives the audience the deepest and most beautiful impression.
Faith: The little boy gave up church services for the red balloon, religion is important, but in the eyes of innocent children, partners are faith.
War: The final war with the bad boy, the little boy and the red balloon save each other, although they are defeated in the end, but show a noble and fearless spirit.
Some people say that the warm plot atmosphere of the first part is to set off the final destruction of the red balloon, but the destruction of the red balloon is not the end. Balloons from all directions floated in from all directions, and they surrounded the little boy and surrounded him, lifting him into the sky and floating into the distance. The story ends in such a fantastic climax, leaving the audience not with the sadness of the red balloon breaking, but with the distant distance and future full of hope.
In the past, it was often said that hope was beautiful, but it was never really understood. When I watched this movie, it was the outbreak of the new crown virus, and I was surrounded by all kinds of negative news in Wuhan, and I had collapsed several times. At this time, it seems that in the darkness of the five fingers, confusion and fear occupy all emotions, longing for light but afraid of despair.
The introduction of "Red Balloon" mostly says that it is a dream, a metaphor for freedom, and innocence, but at this time, after reading it, I believe it is hope.
When the living red balloon is caught by the bad boys and taken to the execution ground, when the dense stones hit it, when the red balloon that brings so many beautiful things is broken, this darkness strikes again, like an invisible hand strangling the heart, leaving only the helpless despair at the mercy of others, just like us in trouble.
And with the melodious music sounding, the colorful balloons flying in the sky, suddenly like a light to clear the clouds, there is hope after despair.
News of the nation's rush to Wuhan's aid followed, hospitals rose one after another, patients received treatment one after another, and special drugs entered clinical trials... The darkness gradually shattered, and there was light shining into the eyes, which was the look of hope.
At this time, I truly understood the meaning of hope and beauty, just like the colorful balloon washed away the sadness of the red balloon's disillusionment, took the little boy to drift away into the distance, and gave him the courage to conquer the future. Hope is beautiful because it makes the future possible, and life has a beautiful opportunity to continue to explore. No matter how severe the predicament, it will eventually pass, and hope will always be there.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >4</h1>
"Red Balloon" is a simple movie, but because of its simplicity, it gives the audience countless possibilities for interpretation. Everyone can see a different meaning in it, and what I see is the beauty of hope brought by a naughty balloon. Life goes on and hope goes on.