Anna Sigalevitch

Erika is a music teacher in Vienna living a hermetic, love-hate existence with her overbearing mother, escaping only to visit porn cinemas and peepshows. When she meets clean-cut, charismatic student Walter, Erika’s carefully calibrated lifestyle is threatened. Control trades hands between student and teacher, as Erika’s masochistic tendencies are inflicted upon Walter during a torrid affair.

For the second feature to be shot outside of his native Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-hsien ventured to Paris for this lyrical masterpiece. Starring Juliette Binoche, and captured in swooning tracking shots by cinematographer Lee Ping Bing, The Flight of the Red Balloon is a work of warm and delicate wonder.