Rent Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
3.7 of 5 from 144 ratings
1h 31min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- 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 (Anne Wiazemsky), 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.
- Actors:
- Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Philippe Asselin, Pierre Klossowski, Nathalie Joyaut, Marie-Claire Frémont, Jean-Joël Barbier, Guy Renault, Jean Rémignard, Guy Brejac, Mylène Weyergans, Jacques Sorbets, François Sullerot, Henri Fraisse, Gilles Sandier, Dominique Moune, Tord Pååg, René Pascal
- Directors:
- Robert Bresson
- Producers:
- Mag Bodard
- Writers:
- Robert Bresson
- Aka:
- Au hasard Balthazar / Balthazar
- Studio:
- Nouveaux Pictures
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Collections:
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- Countries:
- France
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 29/04/2019
- Run Time:
- 95 minutes
- Languages:
- French LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.66:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Interview from 2004 with film scholar Donald Richie
- "Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson," a 1966 French television program about the film, featuring director Robert Bresson, filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and Louis Malle, and members of Au hasard Balthazar's cast and crew
- Trailer
- An essay by film scholar James Quandt
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Reviews (1) of Au Hasard Balthazar
Endurance and Grace: Bresson’s Parable of a Donkey - Au Hasard Balthazar review by griggs
A donkey may not seem the likeliest guide to the sublime, yet Bresson makes him so. Au hasard Balthazar follows the animal as he’s handed from one owner to another—some cruel, some careless, a few briefly kind. Each passage feels more fable than plot, the donkey enduring human folly with a stubborn calm.
The allegory is clear—Balthazar as martyr—but the film never sermonises. Bresson pares life down to fragments: a hand’s twitch, a face half-lit, a bell echoing in the air. Out of this restraint comes a strange radiance. A cart across a field, or the donkey’s patient gaze, is enough to carry meaning.
What remains isn’t piety but recognition: that persistence itself, however battered, can illuminate the world.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.