MovieChat Forums > Au hasard Balthazar (1966) Discussion > Tough For Me Personally

Tough For Me Personally

posted 9 years ago by jonhopper217
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No, not the animal abuse. It's sad, but this is something I've come to expect from older movies. What bothered me is I love movies rich with dialogue and even when there is no dialogue, the actors to actually act. It seems to me that Bresson, by his own admission, doesn't want acting, but realism. Sadly, it doesn't always work. I'd be foolish not to see the beauty in the stripped down nature of it, but it also seems overly representative of the time, maybe even before this time. Something with it didn't click for me. Maybe it was because I cared more for the donkey than Marie and actually didn't see the parable on her end, but from the donkey, throughout. I liked it, but hardly one of the greatest films of all-time.

[–] tobin-64074 9 years ago

I get what where you're coming from. However, the story is not Marie's, it's the donkey's.

(My basic interpretation) The donkey is shown from life to death, and is going on about his purpose. He sees the lives of the towns-people, for better or mostly worse, but he has no input, and cannot change his place in these circumstances. He observes in our place, our lens. He doesn't jusdge or interpret, because he is not capable of it.

[–] jonhopper217 9 years ago

How do you view this movie as being really a tale about Jesus. In that the donkey can only change the lives he touches, but is taken for granted and in the end, dies for their sins? I think it's actually much more complex than a simply religious metaphor, but I think Marie's life choices and the result of them and how they parallel another being who wasn't given the choice, shows that we're all destined to some sort of tragedy. It's a terribly sad movie, however you look a it.