Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

This is one of my all time favorite movies. It is about a donkey who is sold to several people who are all cruel or ignorant, but it is different from all the animal films or in other words from all the films which the main character is an animal. Balthazar was the first Robert Bresson film I watched and to me, it was enough to call Bresson a great director, a master. The story telling or direction is pretty low key or lusterless, but still perfect, heartbreaking and dramatic. Also it is one of the most important films so far because it tells some facts about women, women and men relationships. In the movie there is a girl. Two boys love her, one of them is a gentleman, the other is very macho and troubled and in fact not really loves her herself, to make love with her. She cannot decide, but finds the other boy dull. I won't forget the conversation between two forever. It was something like I work and take care of you. Then we have children the boy says. The girl: How boring it sounds. In movies or real life, both, aren't many women are like that? Such kind of men do not care about the women who are interested in them or the women who they are interested in. Sometimes, they insult them. However, it causes women love them more. However, Balthazar is not a love story or romance despite there is a love adventure of a girl and two boys. By the way, even if it sounds, this is not a cliché love triangle at all, in fact this is not a love triangle. Returning to Balthazar, some people write that the film has several religious references, messages. I could not any reference or message in the film, may be because I am not a Christian. I always wonder the donkey in the film, how they managed it, how it did these? It has a performance I think and its performance is great. For example, its reaction when it sees his ex owner at the circus and the final moments. It makes us feel what it feels. We feel its consciousness about the world and people around him. It seems that it is aware of many things. I would have wanted to keep it at least for a while. The power of the film comes from not only Bresson's direction, but also it tells many things through animals. For example, Balthazar tries to get closer to a flock, but they leave the area hurriedly. There would be a lot of interpretations. The film may look like a typical don't-hurt-animals or animals-are-more-human-than-human-being film, but it is not, it is an unusual film. Lastly, the music at the end of the film was great too.