Stars: Anne Wiazemsky, François Lafarge, Philippe Asselin, Walter Green | Written and Directed by Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson’s mid-career misery-fest is often cited as a masterpiece (it’s sitting pretty on a perfect Metacritic score), although having now endured Au Hasard Balthazar twice in my life I must simply be blind to its supposed power. Using the seven deadly sins as its backdrop and its equine star as a stand-in for faith, it’s an absurdly grim allegory, and one which feels like a chore even at ninety minutes.
The wisp of a plot follows the travails of the titular donkey, once a beloved pet of rural girl Marie (Anne Wiazemsky). Balthazar is effectively sold into slavery, and the film charts the parallel lives led by the pair: Balthazar into old age and Marie into her teenage years. It seems that, without the love of each other, both are bound...
Robert Bresson’s mid-career misery-fest is often cited as a masterpiece (it’s sitting pretty on a perfect Metacritic score), although having now endured Au Hasard Balthazar twice in my life I must simply be blind to its supposed power. Using the seven deadly sins as its backdrop and its equine star as a stand-in for faith, it’s an absurdly grim allegory, and one which feels like a chore even at ninety minutes.
The wisp of a plot follows the travails of the titular donkey, once a beloved pet of rural girl Marie (Anne Wiazemsky). Balthazar is effectively sold into slavery, and the film charts the parallel lives led by the pair: Balthazar into old age and Marie into her teenage years. It seems that, without the love of each other, both are bound...
- 4/29/2019
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
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