SILVER

With Jerzy Skolimowski's widely acclaimed EO collecting awards and best-of-the-year plaudits, now seems like a perfect time to revisit the original donkey-starring spiritual allegory, Robert Bresson's AU HASARD BALTHAZAR from 1966. Born in the French Pyrenees and dubbed "Balthazar" by three children, a young donkey is thrown into a life of successive labors and abuses at the hands of different owners, periodically enjoying moments of love and tenderness in the hands of Marie (Anne Wiazemsky), a young woman whose path crisscrosses several times with Balthazar's, and whose own troubles in life parallel those of this soulful spirit animal. "[O]ne of the greatest films in history …stirs the heart and soul as much as the mind." – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times. DIR/SCR Robert Bresson; PROD Mag Bodard. France/Sweden, 1966, b&w, 95 min. In French with English subtitles. NOT RATED

AFI Member passes accepted.