Au hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson

 
Au hasard Balthazar Criterion DVD

DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $29.95

Criterion Store price:$23.96

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  • France
  • 1966
  • 95 minutes
  • Black and White
  • 1.66:1
  • French

SYNOPSIS: A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, director 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 man. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson’s unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this seemingly simple story becomes a moving parable of purity and transcendence.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

MarieAnne Wiazemsky
GérardFrançois Lafarge
Marie's fatherPhilippe Asselin
Marie's motherNathalie Joyaut
JacquesWalter Green
The grain dealerPierre Klossowski
The priestJean-Joel Barbier
The baker's wifeMarie-Clare Fremont
The bakerFrançois Sullerot
The gendarmeJacques Sorbets
The attorney at lawJean Remignard

Credits

DirectorRobert Bresson
Written and directed byRobert Bresson
Executive producerMag Bodard
CinematographyGhislain Cloquet
EditingRaymond Lamy
Assistant directorSven Frostenson, Jacques Kébadian and Claude Miller
CameramanJean Chiabaut
SetsPierre Charbonnier
SoundAntoine Archimbaud and Jacques Carrere
MusicFranz Schubert
Performed byJean-Joel Barbier
Jazz and songsJean Wiener
ContinuityGenevieve Cortier
Animal trainerGuy Renault
Production designPhilippe Dussart

Disc Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • New video interview with film scholar Donald Richie
  • “Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson,” a 1966 French television show about the film, featuring Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, and members of Balthazar’s cast and crew
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: A new essay by film scholar James Quandt

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Au hasard Balthazar

By James QuandtJune 13, 2005

Godard’s famous claim that Au hasard Balthazar is “the world in an hour and a half” suggests how dense, how immense Bresson’s brief, elliptical tale about the life and death Read more »