The Red Balloon

The Red Balloon (Le Ballon rouge, 1956) is Albert Lamorisse's short fairy tale, free to watch online on iFILM. A Paris schoolboy named Pascal frees a big red balloon snagged on a lamppost — and instead of drifting off, it trails after him through the grey streets of the postwar city.

The balloon waits outside his classroom, peeks through windows, dodges the teacher and the housekeepers. Thirty-four minutes, almost no dialogue: the whole thing runs on glances, on one splash of colour against the stone, on a boy running. Pascal is played by the director's own son, Pascal Lamorisse, and the backdrop is the real Ménilmontant district before the wreckers tore it down. The sweeter the friendship gets, the clearer it is that the neighbourhood kids won't let it last.

Lamorisse made something rare — a children's film grown-ups still carry around decades later. It picked up the Oscar for original screenplay and the short-film Palme d'Or at Cannes, and that bobbing red shape became one of the most recognisable images in European cinema. Stream The Red Balloon (1956) online on iFILM.