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Abstract

This thesis examines how rubber balloons function in cinema as more than props, symbols, and metaphors. Although balloons appear across film history and in a wide range of national and transnational contexts, they have seldom been granted analytical centrality in film scholarship as cinematic objects. This study asks how the materiality and movement of balloons contribute to narrative structure, film form, and meaning. To address this question, I develop the term rubbery aesthetics, a framework for analyzing the rubber balloon as a lightweight, elastic, and mobile object whose significance lies in its movement across space and time. Drawing on Derek McCormack’s atmospheric theory and Jordan Schonig’s aesthetics of motion, this study identifies two key concepts for understanding balloon movement in cinema: directional movement and temporal movement. Directional movement refers to the balloon’s dominant spatial tendency, especially ascension, suspension, and descent. Temporal movement refers to the cinematic timing, duration, and unfolding of balloon movement within and across scenes, as well as the balloon’s relation to material and historical time. This project investigates these questions through three case studies. Chapter One explores ascension in Pema Tseden’s Balloon (Tibet and China, 2019), arguing that the balloon’s upward movement, often associated with narrative endings in balloon films, registers pressure and unresolved closure rather than transcendence, while the juxtaposition of balloons and condoms foregrounds a shared rubber materiality despite their contradictory uses. Chapter Two examines suspension in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flight of the Red Balloon (France and Taiwan, 2007), situating it within balloon films concerned with border crossing. It argues that suspension marks a shift from Albert Lamorisse’s red balloon as companion to one mediated by cameras and museum spaces, while its temporal movement takes the form of a voyage through film and art history. Chapter Three turns to descent in Benjamin and Joshua Safdie’s The Black Balloon (United States, 2012) as a less common movement in balloon films, arguing that downward movement opens onto waste, abjection, and rubber afterlife, while revealing descent as cyclical rather than final. Together, these case studies show how balloon movement can function as a principle of cinematic organization.