The Red Balloon and White Mane*

Albert LaMorisse, director of the short features that are the subject of this week's entry, never found much success in feature films, but the two short subjects he created starring children earned him the Palme d'Or from Cannes and an Academy Award. (LaMorisse also invented the classic board game La Conguete du Mond, translated as Conquest of the World and better known in the US as Risk.) "The Red Balloon" is a whimsical story about a young boy who befriends a precocious balloon and "White Mane" tells the tale of a young man who befriends a fiery, not-to-be-tamed stallion.

"The Red Balloon" stars the director's young son Pascal as a boy who discovers a bright red balloon tethered to a light post one morning. The boy shimmies up the post and takes the balloon home with him. The balloon is not allowed in the house so it is let loose on the landing where it waits for the boy. It will later follow him to school, hound a tyrannical school master, and evade capture from a gang of bullying boys. "Red" is a traditional boy and his dog tale with the part of the dog being played by a balloon with a will of its own.

The story is simple and delightfully odd. The whimsical tone is easier to sustain in a short film where we are not given much time to dwell on the premise. The film is almost entirely free of dialogue, as well, so we are not tethered by magic killing exposition. Pascal accepts his balloon's free will without difficulty allowing the audience to do the same. The balloon and Pascal, however, are not welcomed by the traditional institutions including the school and church. Pascal is removed from both when his balloon attempts to follow him into these magic-free zones. Order must be maintained. The balloon also incites the warrior-like boys who come into contact with it. They must conquer and destroy this playful incongruity. But despite their attempts to restore order, the magic rebounds tenfold in the film's wondrous climax.

"The Red Balloon" utilizes what appear to be simple special effects in the creation of the life-filled balloon. It darts, taunts, loops, pushes into tight spaces, rises, and falls seemingly on its own. While obviously tethered by some puppeteer off-screen, the balloon also appears to be weightless. It's a great effect and the kind that blends into a film without necessarily calling attention to its creators. Its the best kind of special effect that serves the story and is not an end unto itself. Though the film is presented in Technicolor, it opens in a cold, gray world. The stony streets, drab storefronts, and gray skies provide a stark contrast to the titular balloon. In its redness it pops off the screen and constantly reminds us of its otherness.

"White Mane" follows Folco, a boy fisherman living in the marshes of France. He spots a striking white stallion while working and tries to approach the horse. White Mane, a leader of a pack of wild horses, evades the boy, but the two will meet again. White Mane is also trying to elude ranch hands who are attempting to capture and break the wild horse. As the horse evades the men, he warms to Folco who desires a friend more than workhorse.

The film's nature photography is fantastic and the scenes of White Mane fighting for leadership of his clan are fascinating and brutal. Animals were clearly injured in the making of this film, but I do not get the impression that LaMorisse staged the fight for pack leader. The fight is brutal with the horses biting one another in an attempt to dominate. Its a nice corrective to the sanitized friendly horse image splashed across lunch box and Trapper Keeper.

"White Mane" is presented in black and white and the scenes of Folco and his family are reminiscent of the familial moments from Ray's Apu Trilogy, unadorned and quietly observant. Storytelling is handled by a narrator who maybe gives us false hope in the film's conclusion. I was reminded of "Pan's Labyrinth" which presented two possible fates for its child hero. "White Mane" does the same, but I could not shake the feeling that the narrator was lying to me. Given the film's seemingly solid placement in the mundane, its insistence on the fantastic in its conclusion strikes the viewer as false. Ironic? Not likely, but maybe LaMorisse is trying to let his child viewers down easily.

*(Criterion sells the two films separately and without frills. Given this, the two films are not given series numbers in the normal Criterion manner. Netflix, however, packages the two together through their Red Box Entertainment label.)