Au Hasard Balthazar

Watch: Au Hasard Balthazar

9/16/19661h 36m

Premiere Release (US)

Overview:

The story of a donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly.

Director:

Robert Bresson

Status:

Released

Language:

French

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$39,388.00

Key words:

suicide
rape
countryside
misery
donkey
gang leader
youth gang
black and white
cruelty
burden
beast of burden
transcendence
purity
pride
animal cruelty
riding a donkey
abusive boyfriend
peasants

Cast

Anne Wiazemsky

~ as ~

Marie

Walter Green

~ as ~

Jacques

François Lafarge

~ as ~

Gérard

Jean-Claude Guilbert

~ as ~

Arnold

Philippe Asselin

~ as ~

Marie's Father

Pierre Klossowski

~ as ~

Merchant

Nathalie Joyaut

~ as ~

Marie's Mother

Marie-Claire Fremont

~ as ~

Baker's Wife

Jean-Joël Barbier

~ as ~

The Priest

View full cast & crew

Reviews (2)

t
tmdb47633491
Written 7 year(s) ago
6
Devastating. Crazy to see Adele Exarchopoulos so young. You'll never hear the sound of a donkey braying the same way again
CinemaSerf
Written 2 year(s) ago
7
The novice actor Anne Wiazemsky is really effective as "Marie", a young woman who has shared most of her life with her donkey "Baltahzar". Initially her childhood pet, this creature has spent much of his life as the victim of inhumane treatment at the hands of subsequent owners - including her rather wretched boyfriend "Gérard" (François Lafarge) - that in may ways mirrors her own mistreatment and unhappiness. Unlike the human beings, though, "Balthazar" cannot communicate his feelings - he must quite literally just grin and bear it as he is used as a beast of burden, exposed to all weathers and generally neglected. Robert Bresson uses this scenario to compare and contrast the treatment of this animal with the way people treat each other - generous and engaging when they want something; brutal and selfish when they have or don't want it any more. This film offers us a depressing, yet curiously uplifting at times, view of the fickleness of youth and the intolerance of age - subtly. The dialogue is curiously aloof - almost superfluous as the story and their intertwined lives advance with an inevitability as certain and life and death itself. The photography is lingering and intimate, the pace gentle and it's touching. It is also real and gritty and plausible - and certainly a film that leaves you thinking.