Yet, this meme about the setup of the film is repeated ad nauseam in reviews, despite no details nor specifics ever being seen, much as are the fallacies about the main characters in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup having names is, or the characters in Alain Resnais’s Last Year In Marienbad being called by initials is. It simply is a fallacy, and one that bad critics often are guilty of in their incessant cribbing of ideas from each other. But, when these fallacies are acknowledged, a good reader can discern a good, and, more cogently, an honest critic from someone just ‘phoning in’ a review.
But, just as Bresson is not a religious filmmaker, simply because he hides his deeper themes behind religious paraphernalia, neither is this film about cruelty, suffering, etc. There are acts of cruelty within (as described above), there is suffering, crime, and misery, etc. But to claim Au Hasard Balthazar is a film about such things is to claim that 2001: A Space Odyssey is a film about the dangers of technology, or that Blowup is about photography, or the swinging bachelor life of a photographer. Clearly, to an astute cineaste, these claims are absurdities. So, too, the claims for this film being about varied forms of pain and degradation. Simply put, those things occur in life, and this film does not shy away from showing them. But, more importantly, it does not dwell on them either.
Proof comes from the numerous times Bresson’s camera looks away from the acts of cruelty. We do not see Arnold’s beating of the donkey with a chair. We do not see Gerard’s gang’s attack on Marie (a la a similar scene in Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs), nor his earlier psychological brutalization and seduction of her at a roadside, in a car, with the donkey nearby. Yes, we do see some other acts of violence, but these are shown to demonstrate some other aspect of the narrative — Gerard’s pure sadism in burning the donkey’s tail, the disdain Gerard and his thugs have for Arnold, the soulless pelf-hunger of the miser, etc. In short, the violence is not used in a willy-nilly, random, nor excessive way. What is shown is not even pedantic, but always contextualized in a revelatory manner. The film takes a rather ho-hum approach to violence as an everyday reality of life.
Similarly, it takes the same approach to its major themes, the larger one being the cycle of random indifference of most people to cruelty or even more banal aspects of human actions that are negative. It also tackles the utter objectification and diminution of all things to the service of the self. The film truly and deeply attacks human selfishness- a minor form of cruelty, in some acts. The donkey’s life, as example, is not an exemplar of suffering (for that is expected in the life of a ‘beast of burden’), but of routine dullness — a point the all too pious crowd misses.
Article comments
1 - Jon
Oh dear. This review is awful - and I say that though I think Balthazar is a masterpiece.
Is 12 pages of waffle really necessary for a review of the film? In the time it takes to read that I probably could have watched the film again. About 4 pages of that was merely plot describing! And 6 of them were just attacking other critics! Does Mr. Schneider actively search out critics to disagree with? Numerous critics have mentioned Bresson's technique, his use of ellipsis and to what extent the religious imagery is a mask for other things - and with more acuity and less adolescent ranting than this article.
I wont come back to comment, or read any more reviews by this guy because I've seen how any argument on these pages just descend into childish sniping. Still an awful review though.
And the donkey dies/ is dying at the end. To say not is just being very petty.
2 - Robert H
This paragraph--
"As for the DVD, put out by The Criterion Collection, it comes with no English dubbed soundtrack, and only white subtitles " a poor combination, as I’ve oft lamented. The positive of this, though, is that there is not much dialogue in the film that needs translation, and certainly no long speeches. Unfortunately, there is not even an audio film commentary track. This is simply inexcusable in this day and age, especially for such high priced merchandise as Criterion peddles."
--calls into question the legitimacy of anything you say before or after. The fact that you say (or at least imply) that you'd prefer to see a foreign film dubbed into English, makes me wonder if you actually do love foreign films. I can't know for sure, but this makes me think you might also prefer Balthazar in color.
3 - Dan Schneider
If you'd prefer to have up to 1/3 of your visual art marred by letters, go ahead, but any foreign films that are well-dubbed (many Ingmar Bergmans and some Fellinis) are far superior to the defacement of subtitling.
But, if you prefer it, go ahead.