Au hasard Balthazar 1966 (un film de Robert Bresson)

Avec Robert Bresson I conclude the cycle of  three most unique filmmakers in the history of cinema (at least by me). I’m not saying that there are not others that excite me as much as they make me shiver...

Robert Bresson

But these three guys Tarkovsky, Bergman, Bresson are from those kind of artists that exceed their professional profile. Their movies are not just movies, but a kind of philosophy of life. Each one of them in his own way has found that golden mean where the depth of thought meets with simplicity of life.

They don’t  have gusty subjects that keep a firm grip over you. Same as Van Gogh in painting, these guys find art where no one else think that there may be art. The three were poets of the image.

While listening to any interview of each one of them, I  feel my heart beating faster than usual. Do you know why? Because it seems like I know them from a long time. I feel closer to them than to the people who are daily confronted with me. They are my spiritual food. My inspiration.

Yesterday I saw Au hasard Balthazar for the first time. It’s been a long  time that I ‘m in love with Bresson,  but I prejudiced this film because of the donkey as the key point of the film.

Anyway ... I believe that it is excessive for me to say that i can’t forgive myself for prejudicing a masterpiece because of a donkey.

I will redeem my mistake here, in this blog. I will introduce you Au hasard Balthazar as the boldest film of Bresson.

Black and white. Short scenes.

A donkey baptized from his lady as Balthazar.

Name is taken from the Bible. Balthazar is one of the three kings who made a long way to see baby Jesus.

Marie (even this name is not random, keeping in mind the fact that Bresson was a Christian who practiced his faith), the girl who baptized the donkey.

The fates of these two characters are very similar.

Even the other characters carry out a major drama on their shoulders. When I say major I mean those things that we see and experience every day, but there must be any Bresson to put these stuff in front of our eyes and force us to see what we avoid  randomly.

Marie's father, who is willing to lose all because of his excessive pride (bah, so similar to me)

Marie's mother, a wise and noble woman, but so timid.

(In fact, here are all so timid.)

Jacques, the early love of Marie. They know each other from a long time, since Balthazar was a baby. There is an extreme similarity to Jacques with Ganja from "The Idiot" of Dostoevsky. Later I learned that Bresson is based on "The Idiot" to realize this movie.

Jacques is the average man. No vices. No dreams. No big disappointment. No major victory. It seems that he lives in normality, differently from all the others, but he is so shallow. Living without passion. He has no courage to make Marie love him.

His childhood friend is not that innocent anymore. She tells him all of her sins. Jacques accepts her again, not initiated by the nobility of a man in love, but because so is Jacques. Like a tree, with no blood.

He doesn’t even believe that Marie can fall in love with him . "What to do Marie with him? So beautiful, so sweet, so sinful. " At least he is aware of this. Same as Dostoevsky's Ganja, he is clear about his linear fate, without ups and downs.

Gerard, a bad guy. Marie likes him until obsession. Not a few times he treats her as a rag. That's enough for describing this guy.

An untrained eye bewails Marie. "Poor girl!"...   Mais no, mes tres chers! Marie can leave Gerard whenever she wants.

Gerard surmises that he has power over Marie. But I really do understand the sweet masochism of Marie ;) Gerard has power over Marie because she wants him to have power over her.

Even later, when Marie goes to the house of the merchant (a cynical man who evaluates people by what they have rather than what they are) and sells her body to him, it may seems like the merchant is using the vulnerable girl. Mais no!!! Marie is mocking them all.

She experiments with all human relationships that she creates. And what she finds in there is way more evil than her little sins.

The final scene with Marie in the film, where the girl is naked and abused in a ruin, according to me is the final mockery of Marie to all, before she finally runs away from there. Bresson did not show us how Marie ended up like that.

And if you ask me, Marie has invented all of this scene. God, how I love this girl!!!

Arnold, the village drunkard. He may have killed a man. Everyone mocks him, especially Gerard and his thugs. Suddenly Arnold inherits a fortune from his uncle who recently died.

No one mocks him anymore. But Arnold doesn’t taste for too long the new feeling of being respected. He dies within two weeks.

Arnold is like two different people in the same body. Sober Arnold and drunk Arnold. To create the character of Arnold, Bresson is influenced too much from Catholicism preaching on alcohol. For me this point of view seems a bit excessive.

The one that connects all the characters with each other is Balthazar. The animal changes several owners. Nobody treats him well, except Marie. But all of them need Balthazar to achieve their aims.

Even though the film is mainly dedicated to Balthazar, the animal almost never become a protagonist during the film, except the last scene...that is all his.

Bresson did not choose accidentally a donkey. One of the most obedient animals and one of the most biased as brainless.

There is a scene where Balthazar goes to the circus. There are many exotic animals. Donkey looks very different from the others. There we find out that our donkey may even count.

So I conclude that Marie or Balthazar are not as disabled  as not to change their miserable life, but being victim (at least to the others eyes) in some way is their choice.

However Bresson, tantamount to Bergman and Tarkovsky, let many gaps between the scenes. So everyone can create his/her own idea about what is happening.

The final scene is donkey’s death (by a stray bullet) surrounded by a flock of sheep.

A moment of peace. Balthazar as the Good Shepherd.

I’m closing in here. Think whatever you like about this scene. A wounded donkey dying, surrounded by sheep (super symbolic) ... by Led Kasapi