Au Hasard Balthazar [1966] [DVD]

On first viewing, this is simply the beautiful life-story of a donkey, Balthazar, and of the girl Marie who is one of a succession of owners. On second viewing, you begin to see that Balthazar is a Christ-figure, taking upon himself the sins of the world (in the form of beatings and other cruelties). On subsequent viewings this becomes clearer, and you also realise with what subtlety and skill Bresson has woven in a whole novelistic story of financial skullduggery between Marie's father and the father of the boy who loves her. More questions are raised in the viewer's mind, such as: what is the significance of the child's death in the opening minutes, which you barely notice first time round?
This is arguably the supreme masterpiece of a master director, and each viewing reveals more of its riches. It is incredibly fast-moving, not in the "crash-bang-wallop" Hollywood sense but in the amazing amount that happens in a relatively short running time. The final image is truly haunting, and deeply uplifting despite its apparent sadness.

"Au Hasard, Balthazar" was made in 1966 and was followed in 1967 by "Mouchette", the only time Robert Bresson made films in successive years. His final black and white works, they are often linked critically as the peak of his cinematographic skill. Themes spill over from the earlier to the later film - Bresson seems to have felt the need to resolve issues of teenage alienation and the bleak future which can face adolescents.

Robert Bresson (1901-1999) began directing in 1934. His thirteen feature films, made between 1943-1983, achieved great critical acclaim, marked Bresson as a major influence on many European and American directors, yet never achieved box office success. Bresson made the films he wanted to make, striving at all times for visual impact; the majority of his films were in black and white - he demonstrates great visual control in this medium. And the visual element can be emphatic - his films are often sparse in their use of dialogue while Bresson makes exaggerated use of natural sound effects (wind, rain, footsteps, creaking boards).

Bresson used unknown or amateur actors - no big names, no easy familiarity with the faces on the screen. He wanted his audience to concentrate on the story and its emotions, even if his style might make these enigmatic, if not cryptic. Note the opening scenes of "Balthazar" - a dying child, a school teacher in an empty class, references which will have later import but which flash by inconsequentially.

Bresson began as a painter and often referred to his actors as 'models' - they were there to provide visual images. They were stripped of emotion - he didn't want them to portray emotion as a public show, but to exhibit something more transcendent. "Balthazar" is the extreme form of this depersonalisation - the star of the film is a donkey, significantly silent throughout most of the abuses he endures, yet whose voice intrudes into the opening credits to fracture the accompanying music.

Heavily influenced by a Catholic vision of predestination, Bresson shuns exploration of psychology. In many of his films the characters simply accept their fate - they know they are destined to suffer and battle against an illusion of free will. Again, Balthazar provides the ideal form, a poor, mistreated beast, exposed to the whims and abuses of human actors to the point where he is resurrected to endure even more torment.

Bresson's pessimism is evident, but he felt he saw the influence of god more clearly and potently in poverty and suffering. The struggle to resolve the conflict between freewill and destiny is, for Bresson, the essential route to spiritual fulfilment. Balthazar at one point escapes, flees back to the happier world he had known in his 'childhood', only to be once again pressed into the service of humans and into a fresh round of mistreatment and abuse.

"Au Hazard Balthazar" has obvious religious references - the donkey becomes a parody (or even parable) of Christ; the film rides on the donkey's back, is carried in procession by this creature. We can imagine birth in a stable, we have symbolism of bread and wine, Balthazar is crowned with flowers, baptised, resurrected, humiliated, yet transcends all with dignity - emphasised by raucous braying.

The theme is sin and suffering, the donkey acting as both witness and victim. The film follows Balthazar's life - a caricature epic, shot in short episodes, carrying the viewer along at rapid pace. You observe a densely packed narrative - this is a film you need to return to three or four times to absorb all the detail Bresson serves up.

Much of the storyline is enigmatic. Marie, the daughter of a schoolteacher, adopts the new born Balthazar. The farmer, owner of the donkey, loses his child, loses interest in his farm. Marie's father takes on the farm, applying rigorous scientific knowledge in its management. He is plunged into scandal - financial, sexual? The donkey has been sold into a life of toil but escapes and is rediscovered by Marie ... only to be tormented by her delinquent lover and returned to a life of abuse. On his travels he watches the degeneration and corruption of the people who touch his life. Hardly the commercial fare of a Hollywood epic, but an epic none the less.

"Au hasard" suggests danger, risk, but is best translated as 'chance', suggesting that Balthazar's life is random, beyond control ... certainly beyond his control. It's an allegory of human life. Donkeys are born to suffer. So are humans. Marie, in particular, is stripped of control over her life as her brief, idealised childhood descends into the abuse and humiliation of adolescence.

But none of the characters in the film have any control over their lives - they are all driven by forces beyond their ken, are all pawns in a larger game. Bresson casts sin and morality into a bleak light - how do we judge the sinner if the sinner is simply damned to sin? Is the sinner any less deserving of sympathy than the sinned against? The film does contain 'villains', but they too are propelled by an unknown hand and destiny.

An epic, a classic piece of cinematography, an enigmatic flow of narrative, "Au Hasard Balthazar" is beautifully transferred to disc in crisp, high contrast black and white with a largely naturalistic soundtrack. This is a well-produced, well-packaged offering. The DVD delivers an hour-long 1966 French TV programme on the film and a short interview with film scholar Donald Richie, and some printed notes further enhance your analysis of and understanding of the film. A movie worthy of great critical acclaim, but hardly commercial in its themes and style.

Balthazar is a small donkey, a dumb beast who is seldom used well by his owners, who is mostly abused and worked hard, who accepts what comes, who is born and who dies. Please note: elements of the plot are discussed below. Balthazar was born on a small French farm. We meet two children who love him and who grow up thinking they love each other. The girl's father loses the farm and everything he has because of pride. The young boy moves away, but returns as a man, Jacques (Walter Green), still loving her. And the girl, Marie (Anne Wianzemsky) grows up to be a sad-eyed young woman who is almost as accepting of her fate as Balthazar. She is attracted to Gerard, (Francois Lafarge), a bully and a young criminal. He and his gang steal, beat people and begin to smuggle things across the border. What do you see in that boy, Marie's mother asks her. "I love him. Do we know why we love someone? If he says, 'come,' I come. 'Do this,' and I do it."

Balthazar moves from owner to owner. He's often beaten and kicked. He plows the ground, hauls logs, delivers bread. In a brief moment of glory, he's trained to do number tricks in a provincial circus. His owner finds him and takes him back. Once, he finds his way to the farm where he was born and Marie embraces him. He works circling a well, drawing water up to be bottled by a miserly, cynical farm owner who doesn't feed him well. One night Marie flees her parents and comes to the man's farm. He takes her in, looks at her wet dress, finally offers her some money. Marie pauses but turns him down. She says that her father has had to give their last cent to the creditors. "That's what happens when you place honor above everything," the man tells her. "He's spent his life creating obligations for himself. What for?...Do I have any obligations? I'm free, obliged only to do what serves my interests and can bring me a profit -- and a handsome profit at that. Life's nothing but a fair ground, a marketplace where even your word is unnecessary. A bank note will do." Marie spends the night.

Marie meets Jacques again. He wants to marry her. She refuses. "You see our names carved on this bench, our games with Balthazar. But I don't see a thing. I've no more tenderness, no heart, no feelings. Your words don't affect me anymore. Our vows of love, our childhood promises, move in a world of make-believe, not reality." She walks away.

Old and tired, Balthazar still is given no rest. Gerard and his gang steal him to carry contraband. They are discovered by border guards and shots are fired as they flee. At sun up Balthazar slowly moves from the forest into a meadow. He is bleeding from a gunshot wound. A herd of sheep move toward him. Balthazar rests on the meadow, with the sheep bleating around him, nuzzling him, moving past him. As the sheep move on, Balthazar has died. The movie ends.

This is a sad, poignant movie into which one can read all kinds of meanings. What stands out for me is the sense that life simply goes on whether or not a person is happy. The film is full of characters who are petty, sometimes cruel, jealous, naive or full of pride. Yet they aren't caricatures. They are simply people with many flaws. Balthazar finds himself in their lives. We see things where Balthazar is, but Balthazar doesn't see these things. He doesn't observe and he isn't used by Bresson to make a point. He is a passive, dumb beast who accepts what people do to him. We wait just as Balthazar waits. The movie is permeated, in my view, with great sadness and with the recognition that once a person is on a path, it's not all that easy to change. I'm not particularly sentimental, but the death of the little donkey in the field, surrounded by the sheep, had me wiping my eyes.

The Region 1 Criterion black and white picture transfer is excellent. There are two particularly fine extras, an interview with Donald Richie and a French TV show about the movie which features Bresson, Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Goddard and members of the movie's cast and crew.