Cheap Stowaway In the Sky (Video) (Albert Lamorisse) Price

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Customer Reviews of Stowaway In the Sky

LAMORISSE: 4 STARS; LEMON: 0
(Original title: LE VOYAGE EN BALLON.) Albert Lamorisse's first feature was made after the international success of THE RED BALLOON. It is also the first feature shot almost entirely from the air. It took 2 years of work on the helicopter used to still its vibrations before filming could begin. The plot is the merest wisp but it's enough to hang an adventure on. A man has invented what he claims is the best mode of transport--- a beautiful air balloon. Its altitude, direction & speed can all be controlled. Just as he is setting off on a demonstration flight his grandson (the director's son Pascal) climbs aboard, parrot in tow. What happens next is a lovely adventure in which their familiar world seen from a new perspective inexplicably becomes undiscovered country. Church spires become objects of threat & factory smokestacks are volcanoes. A stag hunt is no longer about the thrill of the chase nor a bull run about the excitement of danger. There are forests to explore and mountains & old castles. But their balloon turns out to be not so controllable after all for it kidnaps washing on a clothesline & a guest at a wedding party in Brittany. All set to an enchanting score by Jean Prodromides (released on a Phillips' LP). Now for the bad news. The American actor Jack Lemmon had such enthusiasm for the movie that he bought the US distribution rights. But instead of releasing a dubbed version here he hired Broadway veteran S. N. Berhman to write a narrative (dreadful) which Lemmon reads on the re-mixed soundtrack (dreadfully). Berhman's narrative drains out all the mystery from the movie's images (the color here is washed out too. The balloon originally a vibrant orange is now a pallid lemon). As a topper there are references to adult sexuality (in a children's movie?) which are intended to be sophisticated & amusing but are not. Lamorisse's camera may soar but Behrman's prose remains 6 feet under & Lemmon's cacophony drowns out much of Prodromides' beautiful music. All of which proves that good intentions are not enough & that you CAN make a sow's ear out of a silk purse. Won't someone please give us the original?