Most of French director Albert Lamorisse's films celebrate the miracle of flight, but few were as landmark as his 1956 short subject The Red Balloon. The story, told with a minimum of dialogue, concerns a little boy (played by the director's son Pascal) who comes across a helium-filled balloon. As he plays with his new acquisition, the boy discovers that the balloon seemingly has a mind of its own. The little red orb follows its new "master" all through the streets of Paris, then dogs the boy's trail into the schoolroom, which drives the teacher to comic distraction. Towards the end, it seems as though boy and balloon will be parted forever....but director Lamorisse has a delightful surprise in store for us. In an unusual move, The Red Balloon in its American TV premiere was introduced by Ronald Reagan as an episode of the CBS anthology G.E. Theater on April 2, 1961.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048980/

Awards: Won Oscar. Another 3 wins

Director: Albert Lamorisse

Pascal Lamorisse	 ... 	Pascal the Boy
Georges Sellier	... 	Shopkeeper
Vladimir Popov	... 	Tennant

Video #2 ID : 2 Format : VC-1 Format profile : [email protected] Codec ID : WMV3 Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Video 9 Codec ID/Hint : WMV3 Duration : 32mn 38s Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 1 000 Kbps Width : 640 pixels Height : 480 pixels Display aspect ratio : 4/3 Frame rate : 25.000 fps Resolution : 24 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.130 Stream size : 233 MiB (90%) Audio #1 ID : 1 Format : WMA2 Format profile : L Codec ID : 161 Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio 2 Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 9.2 - 96 kbps, 44 kHz, stereo 2-pass VBR Duration : 32mn 38s Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 95.9 Kbps Channel(s) : 2 channels Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz Resolution : 16 bits Stream size : 22.4 MiB (9%