- Au Hasard Balthazar
2/6/24 (Tues)
Having seen (and not quite comprehended) Pickpocket a few days earlier, I figured it was time to get more acquainted with Bresson. This 1966 film, roughly “Balthazar at Random” (I wonder why they kept the French title), is widely considered not only his masterpiece but one of the greatest films ever made. That immediately made me skeptical.
The movie follows the life of a French village as paralleled in the life of a donkey. It starts with the birth of the donkey, where he is baptized by village children with the name Balthazar, and ends with his quiet death in a field of lambs. In between, he is passed randomly from owner to owner, mistreated or at best ignored by all of them. The various people in the film have their issues as well, but they are humans able to act on their desires and react to events. In contrast, the donkey does not speak or think or have any of the human qualities typical for these films; it is a donkey throughout, and we can only guess at its feelings from the situation and its occasional braying. It is necessarily acted upon rather than acting, a passive player in its own life. Bresson finally found his perfect performer with no emotions or hints as to what he/she is feeling.
sekenbanashi 