Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

STARS...........: Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge DIRECTOR........: Robert Bresson WRITERS.........: Robert Bresson GENRE...........: Drama IMDB............: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060138 RUNTIME.........: 1h 35mn SIZE............: 4.82 GB VIDEO CODEC.....: HEVC (Main10@L4) BITRATE.........: 7000 Kbps (2-pass) RESOLUTION......: 1792x1080 ASPECT RATIO....: 1.66:1 FRAMERATE.......: 23.976 fps AUDIO...........: French AAC 1.0 192kbps SUBTITLES.......: ENG SOURCE..........: Criterion Blu-ray ENCODE DATE.....: 2020-08-24

A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson’s unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this simple story becomes a moving parable about purity and transcendence.

Extras

• Interview from 2004 with film scholar Donald Richie.

• “Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson,” a 1966 French television program about the film, featuring director Robert Bresson, filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and Louis Malle, and members of Au hasard Balthazar’s cast and crew.

• Trailer