Au hasard Balthazar

Introduction by Professor Tom Gunning, Department of Cinema and Media Studies

Critic J. Hoberman stated that this “is the story of a donkey in somewhat the way that Moby-Dick is about a whale.” Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel. He is truly a beast of burden, but despite his powerlessness he accepts his fate nobly. Bresson’s unconventional composition, sound, and narrative, make this seemingly simple story a parable of transcendence.

(Robert Bresson, France, 1966, 35mm, 95 min)

For the second winter, the FSC and the France Chicago Center partner to bring classic and contemporary French Cinema to campus. This year, spend three Friday evenings with Marcel Carné, Robert Bresson, and Eric Rohmer—three French directors whose work represents 70 years of French film history.