Au hasard Balthazar
Au hasard Balthazar • 1h 35m
Directed by Robert Bresson • 1966 • France
Starring Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge
A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, Robert Bresson’s AU HASARD BALTHAZAR follows the 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. Through Bresson’s unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this simple story becomes a moving parable about purity and transcendence.
Up Next in Au hasard Balthazar
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Donald Richie on AU HASARD BALTHAZAR
Film scholar Donald Richie talks about why he considers himself a “Bressonian” in this interview, recorded in New York in November 2004.
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Robert Bresson, 1966 Television Profile
Journalist Roger Stéphane presents this May 11, 1966, episode of the series “Pour le plaisir,” which is devoted to AU HASARD BALTHAZAR. In it, he interviews director Robert Bresson; filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, and François Riechenbach; novelist Marguerite Duras; and members of the fi...
