Janus Films and the Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion have released two clas­sic short films for chil­dren from French film­maker Albert Lam­or­isse: White Mane (1952), and The Red Bal­loon (1956). Each is mostly silent, with only the odd line or two of dia­logue. In essence, both are extended chase sequences that deserve to be taught in film school.

White Mane is the story of a proud, wild horse sought after by cruel ranch­ers. Only Folco (Alain Emery), a poor young fish­er­man, treats the horse with the due respect in order to be able to approach and even­tu­ally ride him. The two become equals, as opposed to mas­ter and pet. Shock­ingly, their tale ends in an appar­ent sui­cide, as Folco and the horse both chose the free­dom of death over liv­ing under oppres­sion (poverty for Folco, cap­tiv­ity for the horse).

The Red Balloon

I vaguely recall see­ing The Red Bal­loon in ele­men­tary school, as an ancient film print run­ning through our rat­tling pro­jec­tor. As the lit­tle boy Pas­cal (Pas­cal Lam­or­isse) makes his way to school through a depress­ingly grey Paris, he frees a stray bal­loon (the red­dest red you’ll ever see on film) tan­gled on a lamp­post. The bal­loon becomes his faith­ful and play­ful pet, but causes him noth­ing but grief. He is kicked off the bus, made late for school, gets in trou­ble with mom, and pro­vokes a gang of ruf­fi­ans in short pants. Still, through­out, the boy remains the faith­ful defender of his adopted friend, and is ulti­mately rewarded after suf­fer­ing tragedy.

White Mane

Together, the two films present the fol­low­ing morals: adults are cruel and unfair, intent on stamp­ing out plea­sure and free­dom, and ani­mals and inan­i­mate objects make bet­ter friends than humans. Both fea­ture heart­break­ing tragedies that would almost cer­tainly never fig­ure into con­tem­po­rary children’s films.

Buy The Red Bal­loon or White Mane DVDs from Ama­zon and kick back a few pen­nies to The Dork Report.

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