Au hasard Balthazar (1966)

Robert Bresson gave us a typically stark vision of humanity as experienced by a put-upon, maltreated beast of burden that passes from owner to owner.

Animal protagonists are traditionally the preserve of sentimental stories for children, but while Robert Bresson’s tragic masterpiece about the travails of a donkey has the simple force of a fable, it presents a brutally pessimistic vision. Punished, maltreated, used, loved, Balthazar is put to work by one keeper after another, bearing silent witness to the folly and petty cruelties of his human masters.

Bresson was a Catholic filmmaker, and his story has been interpreted as a Christian allegory by some critics. The director’s austerely concentrated shots, restricted to details of scenes in order to elucidate the whole, and his controlled use of sound to imply off-screen activity, make for a uniquely dense, richly textured film. Jean-Luc Godard was to suggest that Balthazar contained “the world in an hour and a half”.

“Bresson’s minimalist masterpiece brings to life with unequalled power the story of an abused donkey whose depth of suffering illuminates the cruelty of the human world towards other species and humanity’s unexamined belief in its own superiority.” Barbara Creed

“The reverse of Disneyfication: a parable of animal sacrifice and the price of human foibles.” Barrett Hodsdon

“Robert Bresson drafted the rules of a new cinema and realised them in Au hasard Balthazar, his masterpiece. This seemingly aloof, cold film, inspired by a passage in Dostoevsky’s 1868 novel The Idiot, burns with a yearning for justice and beauty. Bresson’s disciplined portraiture of a donkey and the way of life in the French countryside is a lesson in seeing the world anew through the cinema and noticing the potential that endeavour contains.” Kaya Genc

“Few have changed the face of cinema like Bresson, proposing a wholly new understanding of cinematic time, performance, découpage and the fiction/nonfiction dichotomy. Au hasard Balthazar is the finest work to have ever shifted from the human to the non-human and back again.” Flavia Dima

“Bresson’s stillness is a limpid and natural act of consciousness in front of an impassive world. He stands at the heart of cinema.” Massimo Causo

1966 France, Sweden
Directed by
Robert Bresson
Written by
Robert Bresson
Featuring
Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge
Running time
95 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Au hasard Balthazar

Critics

Mohammed Hashem Abdel-Salam
Egypt
Julien Allen
UK
Thomas Allenbach
Switzerland
Erika Balsom
UK
Tara Brady
Ireland
Colin Burnett
USA
Ty Burr
USA
Andreas Busche
Germany
Esther Buss
Germany
Emilio Bustamante
Peru
Alejandro G Calvo
Spain
Fred Camper
USA
Edwin Carels
Belgium
Massimo Causo
Italy
Barbara Creed
Australia
Manohla Dargis
USA
Tom Dawson
UK
Alonso Díaz de la Vega
Mexico
Flavia Dima
Romania
Klaus Eder
Germany
Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai
USA
Kaya Genc
Turkey
Andrei Gorzo
Romania
Julian Graffy
UK
Molly Haskell
USA
Liz Helfgott
USA
J Hoberman
USA
Barrett Hodsdon
Australia
Bruce Hodsdon
Australia
Shanay Jhaveri
India
Trevor Johnston
UK
Tina Kalinić
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Richard T Kelly
UK
Gabe Klinger
Brazil/USA
Michael Koresky
USA
Tomris Laffly
USA
Jan Langlo
Norway
Nathan Lee
USA
Diego Lerer
Argentina
Paul Lynch
Ireland
Mike Maggiore
USA
Roberto Manassero
Italy
Ivone Margulies
USA
Gustavo Martín Garzo
Spain
Lucrecia Matarozzo
Argentina
Neil McGlone
UK
Thierry Méranger
France
Frédéric Mercier
France
Luis Miranda
Spain
Whitney Monaghan
Australia
Wesley Morris
USA
Carlos Muguiro
Spain
Eddie Muller
USA
Christina Newland
UK/USA
Cristina Nord
Germany
Manuel Peláez
Spain
Joshua Rothkopf
USA
Peter Scarlet
USA/Abu Dhabi
Courtney Stephens
USA
David Sterritt
USA
Gerwin Tamsma
Netherlands
Amy Taubin
USA
Teet Teinemaa
Estonia
Marcos Uzal
France
Catherine Wheatley
UK
Geoffrey Wong
Hong Kong

Directors

Maya Da-Rin
Brazil
Edwin Edwin
Indonesia
Ingemo Engström
Germany
Daniel Graham
UK
Eugène Green
France
John Hillcoat
Australia
Nina Menkes
USA
Lluís Miñarro
Spain
Sally Potter
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
Sri Lanka
Jessica Sarah Rinland
Argentina/UK
Ira Sachs
USA
Anocha Suwichakornpong
Thailand
Béla Tarr
Hungary
Laura Waddington
UK
Helena Wittmann
Germany

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