Review of Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) by Kevin N — 20 May 2009

A quietly profound film which could either be taken as an illustration of everything or nothing. Bresson really harnesses the minimalism here; the characters in this film are lifeless entities, and each is either a producer of cruelty or a victim of extreme suffering.

And then there's Balthhazar, potential Christ-figure but definate narrative backbone, an animal which starts as an object of desire and ends as a symbol of lonliness and pain. Never does an actor's face spoil the mystery of emotion; instead hands and feet tell us all we need to know and perhaps a bit more, even when the characters they belong to are not conscious of them.

Most stunning is the performance by Anne Wiazemsky who fills her character with such a sad emptiness that she seems to be walking dead, a physical blemish made of flesh and blood but containing no senses or soul.

She is difficult to watch, and this serves the film in the best of ways. Bresson was a director who could pull his audience in so close- even beyond his own characters' perception- but still keep a haunting distance between the viewer, the film, and himself.