Flight of the Red Balloon (2008)

Hou Hsiao-hsien (Three Times, Café Lumière) creates an intimate portrait of a small, unique family in Paris in the charming Flight of the Red Balloon. A frazzled, blond Juliette Binoche stars as Suzanne, an accomplished puppeteer who hires Taiwanese nanny Song Fang (played by an actress of the same name) for her gentle seven-year-old son Simon (Simon Iteanu).

In an homage to the 1956 film by Albert Lamorisse, a red balloon hovers overhead as Song and Simon wander through the streets of Paris. With remarkable calm and enormous appeal, Song becomes a steadying influence in Suzanne's harried life. She is also a film student and begins to make a short movie based on Simon's adventures and the balloon that follows him.

With love, patience, good humor and lyrical long takes, Hsiao-hsien Hou captures the up and down rhythms of a chaotic household. Crepes and a spare set of keys are made, the piano needs to be moved and tuned, the tenants downstairs refuse to pay long-overdue rent. There's much to be observed, but like in real life, stories are truncated or unfinished, and take detours. Flight of the Red Balloon is an unusual accomplishment, slow, unassuming, and strangely mesmerizing.