Au Hasard Balthazar is a
1966 French New Wave film by one of the movement’s best, Robert Bresson. It
tells the tangled story of Balthazar, a donkey, and his owners, a shy farmer
and farmer’s daughter. Well, sort of. I want to start out by saying I love Bresson.
L’argent is one of my all time favorite movies and there’s no doubt the dude
was talented and influential. But, frankly, I couldn’t stand this movie. If I
had to sum up the crux of the problem, it would be that the series of events in
the picture seemed to have neither cause nor effect. Everything happened
seemingly at random, the characters seemed either completely disinterested or
helpless and then there seemed to be no real outcome from the actions. In other
words, it’s a random pile up of events that appear to have no real purpose.
Bresson has said that the
movie is a series of lines that intersect to serve as metaphors for the seven
cardinal sins and the Christian journey. Godard thought it was one of the
greatest achievements in cinema history. The late great film critic Andrew
Sarris said it was “one of the
loftiest pinnacles of artistically realized emotional experience.” Well, in my mind, it was a polished turd. I’ll give
you a prime example. Here is a scene from the movie that is indicative of the
movie itself. Marie (farmer’s daughter and girl of her very early teens) drives
up on a country road, parks and walks over to pet Balthazar. Says nothing. A
boy, who she does not know, of similar age walks up looking sinister and then
gets into Marie’s car’s passenger seat. Opens the door, puts her head in
(doesn’t look at him, just stares forward) and yells for him to leave. He says
nothing. She stares forward, glances at him, stares forward, glances at him.
She then gets into the car and stares forward. He goes to touch her, she pushes
him away, gets out crying and runs toward Balthazar. The boy walks over, she
starts to run away, falls, cries, then watches as the boy goes and gets back
into the car. She then gets a resigned look on her face and gets into the car
as well. The scene cuts to the car driving away and the boy zipping up his
pants, while walking away.
There is zero explanation
and, remember, she did not know this boy. It’s as though anything can happen at
any moment and there is no need whatsoever for any cause. I said, at a point in
the film, to the people with me “I feel like anything can happen, like things
are so random that someone could just open fire on the characters and I’d be
like, yep, sure, why not?” As I was finishing this sentence, someone opened
fire on the characters in the scene. They were walking across a field. We were
never shown who was shooting or why. It happened and then, that was it, scene
over, no other acknowledgement of it or explanation. Sure, why not? I actually
was watching this with a film critic from DC and I marveled to him that most
consider this movie a classic and he said, I’d only use one word to describe it…”bomb.” I agree. I love you Mr. Bresson, but this
movie didn’t do it for me.
U
