Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
Directed by Robert Bresson

Film Review

The two outstanding examples of transcendent cinema are Carl Theodor Dreyer's La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) and Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar (1966). Masterpieces of unrivalled purity and poignancy, these two films use the medium of cinema in the most direct and eloquent way to express the most basic truths of human experience.  Both films invoke the Passion of Christ, in the one case through the martyrdom of Joan of Arc, in the other through the lifetime's suffering of a donkey, but their interest isn't limited solely to the religiously minded.  What these two unique films show us is that suffering is an essential part of our existence, the thing that ennobles us and allows us to become far more than mere creatures of flesh and blood.  Denied our capacity to feel physical and emotional pain, we would cease to be human.

Bresson offered his own account of the trial of Joan of Arc, in Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1962), a film that perhaps pays too much attention to historical detail and consequently lacks the purity and searing emotional power of Dreyer's film. Bresson may himself have been aware of this shortcoming and sought to correct it in his next film, Au hasard Balthazar, a similar kind of passion play in which the central character is a dumb animal, a donkey named Balthazar.  Bresson claimed that the film was inspired by Dostoyevsky's The Idiot but a more readily apparent reference is the life of Christ.  Together with Bresson's subsequent Mouchette (1967), these films form a neat trilogy where, in each case, the main protagonist attains sanctity through the suffering he or she must endure at the hands of men.

In common with virtually all of Robert Bresson's films, Au hasard Balthazar has a deceptive simplicity which masks its underlying complexity.  The relationship between the characters only becomes apparent through repeated viewings, and each time you watch the film it leaves a more profound impression.  There are essentially two types of character in the film, those who inflict pain and those who meekly receive it.  The cruelty that is meted out to Balthazar mirrors that which is borne by the majority of the human characters, in particular the little girl Marie who was the donkey's first and kindest owner.  As they follow their respective paths, Marie and Balthazar resemble one another increasingly.  Neither has much control over what happens to him/her and both become willing recipients of cruelty and humiliation.  Yet whilst we sympathise with Balthazar, our feelings for Marie remain lukewarm - her miseries are self-inflicted and, unlike the donkey, she has the option of lessening her suffering, if she makes the right choices (which she never does). 

In Christian terms, Balthazar is in the camp of the righteous, an inherently noble creature that will ultimately be rewarded for his years of patiently endured suffering, whilst Marie, the unrepentant sinner, faces almost certain damnation (at best, a life of pointless misery).  Marie's father likewise brings misfortune on his own head (through a misguided sense of pride which leads him to ruin and disgrace) and is just as deserving of the pain he causes for himself.  Those that wilfully inflict torment are damned by default, none more so than the malicious biker Gérard who dishes out most of the cruelty.  The Devil in human form, Gérard exists only to cause others pain, and cinema has rarely given us an image more shocking than the sequence in which he casually sets fire to Balthazar's tail.  People like Gérard and the cynical old farmer who abuses Marie hold no interest for us, as they clearly have no prospect of redemption.

Bresson's striving for veracity in his art (as opposed to the forced sentimentality that prevails in most cinema) attains its apogee in Au hasard Balthazar, with the result that it is paradoxically both his most profound and most accessible film.  By this stage, Bresson had long dispensed with professional actors, preferring to mould his acteurs-modèles from individuals with no prior acting experience. The 18-year-old Anne Wiazemsky was ideal for this purpose, and her portrayal of the innocent yet easily corruptible Marie is one of the most striking in Bresson's entire oeuvre, all the more powerful because it conveys the distress of a confused teenager without so much as a hint of surface emotionality.  Born a Russian princess, Wiazemsky is one of the few actors to have enjoyed a successful acting career after debuting with Bresson.  She married the director Jean-Luc Godard, having appeared in several of his films (La Chinoise, Week End and Tout va bien) and subsequently made a name for herself as a writer (following in the footsteps of her illustrious grandfather, François Mauriac).   The film's other notable performance is provided by François Lafarge - his Gérard (the evil biker) makes a shocking contrast with Wiazemsky's vulnerable Marie.  Despite his obvious screen presence, Lafarge's subsequent film career was brief and desultory.

Whilst it abounds with Christian imagery and somehow manages to encapsulate the essence of Christianity in one short, powerfully moving film, Au hasard Balthazar is not an exclusively religious work.  It is a remarkable piece of humanist art with a universal appeal, with as much to say to non-believers as it does to devout Catholics.  Balthazar, the overworked, brutally treated beast of burden, may first appear to be some kind of Christ-like ideal, but what he really represents is the tragedy of mankind, condemned to endure an existence that is inescapably cruel and unjust - "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short", as one eminent 17th century philosopher put it.  Far from being depressingly pessimistic, Bresson's cogent statement of mortal suffering resounds with hope.  In those devastatingly poignant closing images of the film it is not sadness we feel, but a sharp sting of transcendence that tells us how necessary it is to suffer and experience pain.  It is only through the miracle of suffering that we can appreciate life and become better individuals.  Without it, we would surely be in Hell - anaesthetised zombies, leading empty lives without hope or purpose.

Film Synopsis

Shortly after he is born in a rural part of France, a donkey is adopted by a small girl named Marie, who christens him Balthazar and treats him as a treasured plaything.  When she is 14, Marie falls in love with Jacques, a boy of her own age, and they agree that one day they will marry.  Unfortunately, after the death of his mother, Jacques must leave the region with his father, who asks Marie's father to take over the running of his farm.  Marie begins a relationship with a thuggish biker, Gérard, who amuses himself by inflicting cruelty on Balthazar.  Marie's father soon runs into financial difficulty and is forced to sell Balthazar to a local baker, who uses the donkey to deliver bread.  Worked to exhaustion, Balthazar is passed on to a drunken vagrant, who nurses him back to health.  After a brief spell as a circus attraction, Balthazar ends up as a working animal for a mean-spirited farmer.  By now the donkey is old and weary, but Gérard has one further use for him...