Au hasard, Balthazar (1966)
(Balthazar)
Country: FR/SV
Technical: bw 95m
Director: Robert Bresson
Cast: Anne Wiazemsky, François Lafarge, Walter Green
Synopsis:
During its long life of drudgery a donkey witnesses the petty cruelty of humans and forgives them.
Review:
An extraordinary film, not least for its narrative leaps and unexplained incident, as if remembered piecemeal by the animal, whose impassive suffering is a truer call to pity than any of Disney's anthropomorphism. Some have seen a Christian allegory in this tale of unalloyed devotion one minute and curious indifference the next, and certainly the name of the beast, one's knowledge of the director and the sometimes heavy symbolism all point in that direction. The acting is largely non-professional, and it shows, and the film has that stiffness typical of its creator, so that it appears at least ten years older than it is. But it is a haunting one.
(Balthazar)
Country: FR/SV
Technical: bw 95m
Director: Robert Bresson
Cast: Anne Wiazemsky, François Lafarge, Walter Green
Synopsis:
During its long life of drudgery a donkey witnesses the petty cruelty of humans and forgives them.
Review:
An extraordinary film, not least for its narrative leaps and unexplained incident, as if remembered piecemeal by the animal, whose impassive suffering is a truer call to pity than any of Disney's anthropomorphism. Some have seen a Christian allegory in this tale of unalloyed devotion one minute and curious indifference the next, and certainly the name of the beast, one's knowledge of the director and the sometimes heavy symbolism all point in that direction. The acting is largely non-professional, and it shows, and the film has that stiffness typical of its creator, so that it appears at least ten years older than it is. But it is a haunting one.
(Balthazar)
Country: FR/SV
Technical: bw 95m
Director: Robert Bresson
Cast: Anne Wiazemsky, François Lafarge, Walter Green
Synopsis:
During its long life of drudgery a donkey witnesses the petty cruelty of humans and forgives them.
Review:
An extraordinary film, not least for its narrative leaps and unexplained incident, as if remembered piecemeal by the animal, whose impassive suffering is a truer call to pity than any of Disney's anthropomorphism. Some have seen a Christian allegory in this tale of unalloyed devotion one minute and curious indifference the next, and certainly the name of the beast, one's knowledge of the director and the sometimes heavy symbolism all point in that direction. The acting is largely non-professional, and it shows, and the film has that stiffness typical of its creator, so that it appears at least ten years older than it is. But it is a haunting one.