Part of the BAMcinématek series Bresson
Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
Directed by Robert Bresson
With Anne Wiazemsky
(1966) 95min, 35mm
Bresson’s masterpiece chronicles the parallel fates of a baptized donkey, who patiently endures mistreatment at the hands of various masters, and a teenage girl (Wiazemsky, soon to be Mrs. Godard) who grows unsteadily into adulthood. Accompanied by a somber Schubert piano sonata, Balthazar is a perfectly realized synthesis of the director’s rigorous theories on cinematic technique, elevating a gentle animal’s heartbreaking journey to the realm of deeply spiritual allegory. Jean-Luc Godard himself said of the film: “Everyone who sees this film will be absolutely astonished because it is really the world in an hour and a half."
