'The Red Balloon' -- 4 stars ... 'White Mane' -- 4 stars

'Balloon,' 'Mane' a pair of classic imports

There was a time when Albert Lamorisse's film "The Red Balloon" was the quintessential French cultural export. Since its 1956 release it has come up for a fair amount of ridicule from various quarters, in the way that "The Little Prince" has courted charges of preciousness. (That one may deserve it.) But time has been very good to Lamorisse's 34-minute story of a boy and an exceptionally loyal balloon, and it has floated back to Earth in a beautifully restored print. Beginning Friday it plays at the Music Box Theatre for a week, along with Lamorisse's "White Mane" (1953), which also looks gorgeous, in a radically different and haunting way.