Robert Bresson’s rigorous examinations of the human condition, invariably enacted by non-professionals, reached a kind of apotheosis in 1966 with this Venice prize-winning film about the birth, life and death of a donkey. The simplicity of the theme disguises a profound meditation on man’s inhumanity to man – and to animals. Can a donkey be presented as a saintly figure? In Bresson’s austere world, he can.
PG. Mild themes and violence.
David Stratton
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view trailer |
view interview with Bresson |
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USEFUL LINKS & RESOURCES
The Criterion Collection http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/370-au-hasard-balthazar
The 'hands of Bresson' http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3196-hands-of-bresson
British Film Institute http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6a44b82c
British Film Institute http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6a44b82c
AFTRS Library |
This is Barbara Grummels' personal blog, created in enthusiastic response to these free screenings at AFTRS.
We have been deprived of a cinemateque in this 'city of film' for so long. These films don't fill the void but are a most welcome move in the right direction (...it's not an official AFTRS blog).
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ReplyDeleteI’ve recently enjoyed watching The Criterion Collection DVDs of Bresson’s 'Mouchette' and 'Diary of a Country of a Priest' courtesy of the AFTRS library. Here now is a wonderful free opportunity to see a 35mm print of 'Balthazar' on the cinema screen. Bresson is not referred to as the patron saint of cinema without cause, and his ideas on materialism are very modern.
ReplyDeleteSome time ago I read a short piece in the New Yorker (July 2007) on 'Baltahzar' by Anthony Lane and have been hoping to see the film since. Lane said “The hero of the film—or its most abiding victim—is a donkey called Balthazar. What lends grace to Bresson’s beast is the patient witness that he bears to the human activities, ranging from the exalted to the monstrous, that take place around him.”
The idea of animals bearing witness to social ills is so powerful and seems to me to have a great deal of contemporary resonance. I’m interested to hear David Stratton introduce the film and am curious to know if this theme is something he also responds to.
In a recent issue of the 'Griffith review' (Looking West, issue 47),' Tim Winton says that “Rachel Carson showed you can get a sense of the health of an ecosystem by how its birds are faring. And I was thinking during the writing of 'Eyrie' that perhaps you can tell how a society is travelling by the situation its children find themselves in.”
I may be drawing a long bow, but the children and animals of Bresson and Winton appear to have something in common, even though they’re separated by a generation and a hemisphere.
Looking forward to 6pm, Wednesday 8th.