Review of Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) by Matthew S — 10 Feb 2012

I'm unsure whether my current headache is the result of this film, or having watched three films in a row...This is an over-rated pile of garbage. The story is disjointed at best, with time's progress in the lives of the characters (including the eponymous donkey) often being over abrupt and unclear edits.

Characters and events are introduced with no context whatsoever, leaving you to scramble to piece together the story on your own.Those characters with value are misused. The strongest being the sadist Gerard, and the girl's Father.

Many of the others being weak in concept and in performance (the mother, or wife of the father, for example, as I couldn't tell which she was!)It's also a travesty that the director poisoned the donkey at the end.

Perhaps less the simply fact he poisoned an animal for a film, but that something died for THIS film. Ugh!