Au Hasard Balthazar ( Min vän Balthazar ) ( Balthazar )

Au Hasard Balthazar (DVD) (*)

Out of Stock

Original Title: Min vän Balthazar
Alternate Title: Balthazar
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Venice Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( PAL/Region 2.4 )

Running Time:
95 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Behind the scenes
Documentary
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1966 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Sweden ( Scandinavia, Iceland )

Directed By:
Robert Bresson

Written By:
Robert Bresson

Actors:
Anne Wiazemsky ..... Marie
Walter Green ..... Jacques
François Lafarge ..... Gérard
Jean-Claude Guilbert ..... Arnold
Philippe Asselin ..... Marie's father
Pierre Klossowski ..... Merchant
Nathalie Joyaut ..... Marie's mother
Marie-Claire Fremont ..... Baker's wife
Jean-Joël Barbier ..... The Priest
Guy Renault ..... Notary
Jean Rémignard ..... Police Officer
Guy Brejac ..... Baker
Mylène Weyergans
Jacques Sorbets
François Sullerot

Synopsis:

Master French director Robert Bresson created this landmark cinematic work with the affecting story of a saint-like donkey ruthlessly victimized by human greed and folly. Reared in the idyllic French countryside by doting young children, the donkey Balthazar is soon put into bondage before spurning his master and finding his way to the loving Marie, a poor, beautiful girl whose parallel destiny sees her abused by the village rogues and delinquents. Godard famously called the film 'the world in an hour and a half', and Bresson has created a moving allegory of sacrifice, suffering and redemption.

Film follows the life of the donkey Balthazar as he passes from owner to owner, many of them treating him cruelly, all of them are beyond his pure and simple comprehension. His sad predicament as a beast of burden parallels the life of his first human owner, Marie, who, like Balthazar suffers the sins of man. Balthazar is a noble creature, however, and he accepts his fate with grace. The film is a parable of virtue & purity. It is a narrative of transcendence in a life of burden.

The sad life and death of Balthazar, a donkey, from an idyllic childhood surrounded by loving children, through adulthood as a downtrodden beast of burden. His life is paralleled with that of the girl who named him, and as she is humiliated by her sadistic lover, so he is beaten by his owner. But he finds a kind of peace when he is employed by an old miller who thinks he is a reincarnated saint...

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 16 November, 2012.

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