Activities after Watching the French Film: “The Red Balloon”

Current DVD cover

You might remember the quiet 1956 French film The Red Balloon from when you were younger. In this short fantasy film, red balloon follows around a young Parisian boy, getting Pascal into trouble at school, waiting outside his home when his mother won’t let it in, and trying to avoid a group of bullies with the boy. After a sad climax, there is a happy ending.

You can watch the entire film on-line here, buy a copy of the DVD, or take out a copy from your local library. Before watching the movie, get out the map and tell your kids that the setting is a neighborhood of Paris, the capital of France. The main character is a little boy named Pascal. I also showed them a flag of France, and told them to find the flag in the movie (it is displayed outside the school). While we were watching it, my daughters pointed out that the streets were made of stones (cobblestones), that all of the buildings were made of big grey bricks, that lots of people were walking around, that the little boy lives in an old apartment building, and that it looked cold because the kids had on winter coats. Kids pick up these subtle details especially well because there is not a lot of dialogue to focus on.

After the movie I asked my daughter to draw out the plot, or the series of events in order of what happened in the movie. In case you cannot make out her crayon descriptions, she says 1) The boy wants the balloon. 2) The balloon follows him. 3) The boy is running away. 4) The boys are not sharing. (She said she was too sad to write when it was popped). 5) The balloons are going away. 6) The boy is flying.

My 6 year old's plot sequence

After we drew the pictures we talked about where we think the boy went with the balloons… a birthday party, to a magical world of balloons, to the supermarket to buy another red one, back home, to the park.  My favorite: to share them with nicer kids.