The kids and I were mesmerized by our recent viewing of the 1956 French movie, Le Ballon Rouge---and James is convinced that he will be the boy with the red balloon for his next Halloween costume. This beautiful film captures the virtues of friendship, hopefulness, and redemption through the perspective of a six-year-old boy and his playful balloon. James is getting so good with allusions these days (however a-chronological/anachronistic they might be): this film reminded him of the Chihuly glass sculpture at the Joslyn Art Museum; of the Pixar movie, Up; and of "Hopper and Wilson," an illustrated kids book that features a red balloon and a trip to the other side of the world. The palate of this film is gorgeously muted in grays, silvers, and blues---the colors that capture a Parisian setting---and punctuated with bursts of reds, blues, white, and green. This is a movie to which we will return often for inspiration, virtual tourism, and beauty.
