Name: Companion piece: Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
Cast: Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge

Hoezo in KINO

With the release of Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO about the trials and tribulations of a little donkey surviving in man’s cruel world, we screen Robert Bresson’s masterpiece Au hasard Balthazar. This immersive piece of cinema emanates compassion and was described by Jean Luc Godard as “the world in an hour and a half”. A beautifully haunting and transcendent film that transports the viewer into the world of this often overlooked animal which servitude we take for granted. Essential viewing. French language with English subtitles.

Credits

Regie: Robert Bresson
Cast: Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge
Genre: drama
Speelduur: 96 minuten
Land: Frankrijk
Taal: Frans
Ondertiteling: Engels

Storyline

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.