France
1966
95 minutes
Black and White
1.66:1
French
297
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.
| Marie | Anne Wiazemsky |
| Gérard | François Lafarge |
| Marie's father | Philippe Asselin |
| Marie's mother | Nathalie Joyaut |
| Jacques | Walter Green |
| The grain dealer | Pierre Klossowski |
| The priest | Jean-Joel Barbier |
| The baker's wife | Marie-Clare Fremont |
| The baker | François Sullerot |
| The gendarme | Jacques Sorbets |
| The attorney at law | Jean Remignard |
| Director | Robert Bresson |
| Written and directed by | Robert Bresson |
| Executive producer | Mag Bodard |
| Cinematography | Ghislain Cloquet |
| Editing | Raymond Lamy |
| Assistant director | Sven Frostenson, Jacques Kébadian and Claude Miller |
| Cameraman | Jean Chiabaut |
| Sets | Pierre Charbonnier |
| Sound | Antoine Archimbaud and Jacques Carrere |
| Music | Franz Schubert |
| Performed by | Jean-Joel Barbier |
| Jazz and songs | Jean Wiener |
| Continuity | Genevieve Cortier |
| Animal trainer | Guy Renault |
| Production Design | Philippe Dussart |
Donald Richie recently came through the United States on his eighty-fifth-birthday tour, and along the way he stopped in Berkeley for a conversation with longtime friend, Telluride codirector, and Mishima producer Tom Luddy. Those who have heard Donald’s Criterion interviews and commentaries...
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 of a donkey is. The film’s steady accumulation of incident, characters, mystery, and social detail...
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