The Red Balloon
by Albert Lamorisse
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Book Summary Information
Author: Albert LamorisseEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1967-08-15
ISBN: 0385003439
Number of pages: 48
Publisher: Doubleday Books for Young Readers
Book Reviews of The Red Balloon
Book Review: A beautifully produced picture book of the 1950's children's classic short film.
Summary: 5 Stars
For anyone, who, like myself, went to see The Red Balloon at the cinema as a child in 1957, this beautifully designed and superbly produced book is a perfect souvenir of this multi-award winning Technicolor short film that remains as totally enchanting today as it was fifty years ago, when I was entranced by it as a ten year old boy.
When a film is in production, very many still photographs are taken during the shoot for use as publicity material later on. This book contains no less than 39 black and white location stills and seven in full colour, or nine if you count the front and back covers, making a total of 48 photographs as beautifully crisp and clear today as they were when they were first taken, a lifetime ago, way back in 1956. Accompanying the photographs is the storyline of the film, told page by page and still by still and this is beautifully written.
The Red Balloon, directed by Albert Lamorisse, running only 35 minutes, without dialogue and telling its story though pictures, sound and music, tells the fable of a lonely little six year old Parisian boy, Pascal (played by the director's young son, Pascal Lamorisse), who befriends an equally lonely helium filled red balloon with a life of its own, which becomes his constant companion, following him everywhere, waiting outside school for him and even outside his bedroom. The two become devoted to one another and share many adventures together. For Pascal, the red balloon becomes the friend that he's always yearned for.
At the end, a group of school bullies, jealous of the happiness that Pascal and the balloon have found together, waylay the little boy and throw stones and fire catapults at the balloon, puncturing it. As the balloon slowly falls to the ground and dies in front of a heartbroken Pascal, all the balloons of Paris come to its funeral, lifting Pascal up over the Paris skyline and upward into Heaven, where Pascal and his beloved red balloon will be together forever. So very beautifully done and so very, very moving. An absolute children's classic.
The film and the location photographs in this book are also a unique record of a long lost part of Paris. A Technicolor record of the Belleville area of the city, which was razed to the ground during the 1960's, left as waste land for twenty years and then converted into a modern day park. 99% of what you see in the film, including the bakery, the famous Y shaped staircase, ect, exist no more. One or two shots are taken in Montmartre but the rest of the film was shot in the Belleville area of Paris and the adjacent quartier des Pyrenees. Only the large church seen in the film and also in this book remains today, dwarfed by the high rise blocks erected in the 1970's.
I highly recommend this book to anyone of any age who appreciates something of a very high quality. Not just those of us who are approaching sixty now and have very fond memories of the film from our 1950's childhood, but to anyone of any age. 5 out of 5. From David Rayner in Stoke on Trent, England.
Summary of The Red Balloon
A magical book that has become an enduring children's classic, The Red Balloon is the story of a young boy and his best friend--a bright red balloon. Chock-full of photographs of the boy, the balloon and the captivating city of Paris.A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year.
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