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Au hasard Balthazar
- Original title
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Au hasard Balthazaraka
- AKA
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- Year
- 1966
- Running time
- 95 min.
- Country
 France- Director
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- Screenwriter
Robert Bresson - Music
Jean Wiener - Cinematography
Ghislain Cloquet (B&W) - Cast
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- Producer
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Co-production France-Sweden;
Argos Films, Parc Film, Svensk Filmindustri (SF)
- Genre
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Drama
- Synopsis
- Au Hasard Balthazar presents an unfettered view of human cruelty, suffering and injustice, filtered through the eyes of a donkey over the course of his long life. The burro at the film's center begins life peacefully and happily, as the unnamed play-object of some innocent children in bucolic France, but his circumstances change dramatically when he becomes the property of a young woman named Marie - who christens him Balthazar. As she grows up and encounters tragedy and heartbreak, so does Balthazar; he passes from owner to owner, who treat him in a variety of ways, from compassionately to cruelly. The donkey, of course, lacks the capacity to comprehend the motivations of each individual but accepts whatever treatment (and role) is handed him, nobly and admirably. Bresson ultimately uses the story as a heart-rending allegorical commentary on human spiritual transcendence.
- Rankings Position
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- Critics' reviews
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"This great film, made with uncompromising honesty and devastating reality, is, according to Jean-Luc Godard, 'the world in an hour and a half.'"
TV Guide
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"Not an image or sound is wasted and from such seeming simplicity there arises a world of feeling"
Manohla Dargis: The New York Times
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"Perhaps the greatest and most revolutionary of Bresson's films, Balthazar is a difficult but transcendently rewarding experience, never to be missed."
Dave Kehr: Chicago Reader
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"The finest, most deeply personal work of a filmmaker who has been compared, justifiably, to both Dostoyevsky and Bach"
Michael Wilmington: Chicago Tribune
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"Bresson suggests that we are all Balthazars. Despite our dreams, hopes and best plans, the world will eventually do with us whatever it does"
Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
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"If you can see past the heavy-handed religious overtones you will encounter an inspired and deeply intelligent Bresson classic."
David Parkinson: Empire
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2013
Kristoffer Nyholm, Kristian Petri
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2000
Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
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