My memory of Albert Lamorisse’s lovely The Red Balloon (1956), about a Parisian boy’s friendship with a red balloon, was so iridescent that I incorrectly remembered the rest of the film as black-and-white. Now you can take your kids and/or yourself to a gorgeously restored new print (overseen by Pascal Lamorisse, the director’s son, who also played the boy),

released in a double bill with Lamorisse père’s 1953 White Mane, an exquisite story of a similarly angelic lad and his horse pal resisting capture on the shallow white plains of the Camargue. For all the seraphic beauty of the boys, neither movie resorts more than briefly to cuteness; both are escape fantasies that pay homage to the inventiveness of children in the face of dour adult oppression. In both films, the final images indelibly evoke the rapture and terror of being carried away—about as good a metaphor for cinema as I can think of. Call or see Web site for show times. Ends Nov. 29.

Fri., Nov. 23, 2007