Au hasard Balthazar
This small program aims to repair an injustice: the lack of importance given to the animal world in the Cinémathèque québécoise’s programming since its foundation in 1963. However, cinema has since its beginnings and even before, among the precursors (Muybridge), granted with infinite patience a capital importance to the living phenomenon, placing of course at its center the recording of all animal appearances, in a documentary perspective. However, singular fictions have developed over time where the animal takes a role in the strong sense of the term, switching forever into the world of cinematographic representations. This is the first entry in a multi-part series devoted to animals.
The tribulations of the donkey Balthazar, pampered by children, bullied by peasants, applauded in a circus and finally forgotten. One of the masterpieces of Bresson's cinema, entirely based on simplicity and ellipsis, this parable offers perhaps the only example of sanctity in the master's work: a donkey.
Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson is a French filmmaker. He directed 13 feature films and wrote an important essay on cinema entitled Notes sur le cinématographe. His awards include the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director in 1957 for A Man Escaped, the Special Jury Prize in 1962 for The Trial of Joan of Arc and the Grand Prix de Création in 1983 for L'argent. He also won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for The Devil Probably in 1977 and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 1989 at the Venice Film Festival.
Photo : Sam Lévin | Collections de la Cinémathèque québécoise
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Les liens indéfectibles – historiques, techniques et formels – qui unissent le cinéma au train depuis le tout premier film sont bien connus. Il est donc tout naturel de trouver des trains dans un cycle de grands films incontournables. En voici cinq, pour autant de moments de cinéma inoubliables.
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