Albert Lamorisse

Active - 1950 - 1968  |   Born - Jan 13, 1922   |   Died - Jan 1, 1970   |   Genres - Children's/Family, Fantasy, Drama

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Biography by AllMovie

French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse is best remembered for making the exquisite short The Red Balloon(1956) a whimsical fantasy in which a French boy is befriended by a magical red balloon. The short earned him both a grand prize at Cannes and an American Oscar. Lamorisse started out as a photographer and began making short films in the late 1940s. The poetic simplicity of his short- and medium-length films gained him an international reputation. His 1952 short, White Mane, an account of how a young boy gentles an untamable wild white stallion, also took top prizes at Cannes and the American Oscars. He unsuccessfully tried his hand at feature-length films in the early '60s and then returned to making short documentaries. Tragically, while making The Lover's Wind (1970) in Teheran, Lamorrise was killed in a helicopter crash. Using his production notes, the film was edited and released in 1978 and earned him a posthumous Oscar for "Best Feature Documentary."

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