The Cinematheque

“No film I have ever seen has come so close to convulsing my entire being … It stands by itself as one of the loftiest pinnacles of artistically realized emotional experience.”

Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer

Described by Godard as ​“the world in an hour and a half” and by Michael Haneke as ​“the most precious of all cinematic jewels,” this remarkable Christian parable is one of Bresson’s most deeply affecting, lyrical, and accessible works. It centres on the life of an exploited donkey, Balthazar, as he’s coldly passed from owner to owner, bearing witness to the full range of human failings, cruelties, and vices—but also capacities for love. In a parallel and intersecting tale, a young farm girl (Anne Wiazemsky in her debut) is seduced and abused by the leader of a resident motorcycle gang. Together with its follow-up and companion film Mouchette, Balthazar demonstrates the Bresson style at perhaps its most transcendental, the austerity of form inextricable from the edifying nature of its stark, often severe abasements. In Sight and Sound​’s 2022 poll, Balthazar placed 25th, the highest position for a Bresson film.

In French with English subtitles

“Heart-breaking … The supreme masterpiece by one of the greatest of filmmakers.”

J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“In their account of suffering and of human reaction to it, Balthazar and Mouchette appear now as Bresson’s greatest works.”

David Thomson, A Biographical Dictionary of Film