MOVIE ESSAY: Au Hasard Balthazar: A Look At Its Religious Symbolism
If someone approached you with a film chiefly about a donkey's life and said that this donkey is supposed to resemble a Christ-like figure, would you laugh and move on to the next movie on the queue, or would you give this film a chance? Many people have mixed reactions regarding the premise of 'Au Hasard Balthazar,' because of its unconventional protagonist (a donkey), its anti-climactic premise and the biblical connection director, Robert Bresson, tried to convey.
Sure, a donkey is not considered one of the smartest animals in the world - hence the nickname, "ass" being used in a derogatory sense in today's society -- but it has had its share of biblical and mythological meanings that have been proven far superior to a mere "ass." Although silent, Balthazar, the donkey and main character of 'Au Hasard Balthazar,' has a role that reaches greater heights than any human in the film, due in large by his implied iconic role.
"The donkey is the entire Bible, Old Testament and New Testament," Joseph Cunneen wrote in Robert Bresson: A Spiritual Style in Film. (55) The donkey was a symbol of the Egyptian god Seth, the Greek god Dionysus, and in 'Au Hasard Balthazar,' Christ.
Ron Reed of ChristianityToday.com reviewed this film with the idea of religion being a big part of Bresson's message and went to summarize the premise as follows:
This unadorned 95-minute story follows the young colt Balthazar's adoption as family pet, through the hands of many masters, to the moment of his eventual death. It is a fragmentary portrait of a French village in the mid-sixties, tracing the interwoven lives of eight characters. It's a study of human weakness and cruelty, it's a portrait of Christ the suffering servant, and it's the heartbreaking story of a young girl's descent from innocence to despair. (1)
We are first introduced to Balthazar as a newborn, while three children surround him with all intentions of playing with him for hours on end. The scene that follows provides us with the first reference to Balthazar's biblical role: He gets baptized.
The three children, Jacques, his sister and Marie, sprinkle water on its head, say a prayer and essentially purify and name him Balthazar. In Christian tradition, a baptization is a religious sacrament marked by the symbolic use of water and resulting in the entrance into Christianity. The suggestive idea behind a scene where a donkey is being baptized could be Bresson's way of suggesting that any creature can eventually go to heaven; making an animal no exception to this rule, Bresson is placing the three children as an adapted version of the Three Wise Men who -- in biblical terms -- worshiped Jesus Christ and showered him with love and affection post-birth.
Balthazar starts off living on a farm in the rural French countryside, but then gets shifted from owner to owner within the district, catering to transportation and personal needs. Balthazar stumbles into the arms of an array of people (both good and bad) and inevitably gets mistreated by many of them. The humans portrayed in this film are flawed, and the main human characters, Marie, Marie's father, Gerard and Arnold, could even be the representations of the seven cardinal sins based solely on their actions and personalities in the film. Although the sins (also known as the seven deadly sins), are not originated from the bible, they have been derived from Saints and considered unholy. Joseph Cunneen states, The donkey serves as the connection thread for the action, and the various plot lines keep crisscrossing in surprising ways. 'Balthazar' presents almost a catalogue of the capital sins of humanity, with pride, drunkenness, laziness, and lust competing with green for central role, (56)
Marie (Anne Wiazemsky), is Balthazar's first owner and one of the original "Three Wise Men" who watched over Balthazar as a youngen. Marie resembled innocence, just as Balthazar resembled innocence before he became a slave to labor. Marie's virtue was taken away from her when she fell for the rebellious Gerard (François Lafarge), who won her over with his leather jacket, motorbike and portable radio. She is the fallen victim to the sin of lust. Also, despite witnessing Gerard hurt Balthazar, she did absolutely nothing about it, which could be something Bresson inserted into the film as comparison to Jesus' friend and disciple Judas, who also was not able to do anything about the cruel treatment Jesus was experiencing, which many view as the ultimate betrayal.
Gerard is a character with many sins under his belt; wrath, because he has unnecessary anger toward people (especially the abuse he gives Balthazar and Marie); greed, because he only thinks about himself and not the state of others; and pride, which for lack of better terms, is self-explanatory.
Maries' father (Philippe Asselin), also falls victim to pride. While Jacques' father gave him the responsibility to manage his farm while he is away -- even though he managed the farm with genuineness -- jealous neighbors (referencing the sin of envy) began rumors claiming he had been stealing money. Taking too much pride in being honest, he refuses to show proof of receipts, thus resulting in bankruptcy.
Last but not least, the town drunk, Arnold (Jean-Claude Guilbert), is both sloth and gluttony. The introduction to Arnold at first is at a police station where he is being questioned for a murder, followed by ridicule from Gerard and his friends for being "nothing but a drunk." He is looked at as waste and a disgusting portrayal of humanity. But contrary to being looked down upon, Arnold is one of the only people who was actually sweet and gentle to Balthazar when he was under his care.
Rob Reed writes, "I think of Mel Gibson's 'Passion of the Chris't:' both directors focus unflinchingly on a blameless sacrificial victim, mistreated by those who have power over his life, a victim who endures cruel things at their hands and for their sake as he trudges resolutely forward to fulfill his purpose in the world. Christ's torments are extraordinarily violent, compressed into twelve or fifteen hours, while Balthazar's are casual and sustained, a lifelong via dolorosa of mundane cruelties. (4)
Reed's statement that Balthazar's violent treatments were mundane, and in other words, "very common," is an understatement. While Jesus Christ was able to speak and stand up for himself, Balthazar was unable to do so. The only way Balthazar was able to get away from his mistreatment was by running away from it. Under Bresson's direction, he never gives the audience a chance to witness what Balthazar sees with a point of view shot. Instead, Bresson chooses to close-up on Balthazar's legs as he walks with heavy supplies on his back, or cutting to people actually whipping him; it is not Bresson's duty to specifically show Balthazar's feelings for the audience to react to - we are supposed to figure it out on our own.
What Bresson does put in the film to toy with the audiences' emotions is Balthazar's bray. It is the only sound a donkey can make, and even though Balthazar does let out sounds during the film (which the audience naturally perceives as crying or yelling from suffering), Bresson hardly ever makes Balthazar bray during actual scenes where he is being physically hurt. Alternatively, Balthazar habitually brays when he is alone -- perhaps because he feels silenced and censored by humans. Christ was also calm when he was surrounded by those who wanted to harm him.
Balthazar is the quintessential misunderstood wallflower who just cannot fit in, because he is without a doubt different. He's a donkey surrounded by humans, and whether he actually realizes that or not, Bresson does and gives Balthazar the ability to express his feelings through visuals. When Balthazar brays as he wanders into an abandoned barn after his first runaway, we take that as his cry out for help (but he is alone); When Balthazar is in the hands of Gerard, and Gerard ties a paper to his tail and lights it on fire, we see Balthazar in pain, as oppose to hearing it; When Balthazar is standing outside covered in snow we feel the cold for him... Unfortunately, none of the humans in the film feel what it.
The final scene in the film is a bittersweet ending to a life of a donkey that experienced a great deal. In the end, Balthazar is seen in a long-shot wandering onto an open field revealing space -- something that was limited in the scenes before, which were filmed in tight shots. He is no longer confined, and although we expect him to gallop freely, he is old, wounded and too weak to even walk any further. The last few steps he takes before lying on the grass are an eerie resemblance to Jesus Christ's last steps before he was crucified. As Balthazar lies on the grass overseeing a beautiful landscape, the sound of bells are heard off screen soon revealing a herd of sheep coming his way.
Through out the film, Balthazar never interacted with other animals; the one scene where he was in the same room as other animals, he was the only one who was not caged, and the last time he was in a herd was right after his birth before he was quickly removed, but in the last few minutes of Balthazar's life, he arbitrarily becomes surrounded by animals. These sheep wander about, nudging at him, eating the grass around him and completely unfazed by his presence... Balthazar is finally in a wide-open space where he is like everyone else. This is where Balthazar is accepted for the first time, because he's no longer different anymore, he is an animal just like them. When Jesus Christ died, people accepted him for what he used to be and what he stood for, and Balthazar died with his own form of reception and understanding, bringing Bresson's association of Balthazar to Christ to an end.
Ron Reed concluded: "'Au Hasard Balthazar' is no straightforward allegory of a donkey-Christ. His death goes unremarked, saves no one, and atones for nothing. But does Balthazar remind us of Christ? Absolutely..." (5)
