Au hazard Balthazar in every frame has exceptional morality, intimidating representation of humanity as a whole manifesting in the grotesque nature of people getting satisfaction over dominants over animals! Opening in a delicate arrangement of piano notes interrupted by a donkey’s whaling cries (possibly Balthazar’s birth.), then back to the melancholy piano to the titles in a crumpled-up background. The very first shot is of young Balthazar feeding on his mother already representing the beginning of life, nurturing, and the miracle of creation. A hand slowly stroking Balthazar’s content back is Marie the woman in form of kindness wanting a friend to keep but over her shoulder a stern father, stating no in his heavy authority. Already the film has shown us the cruel, unjust yet reasonable dissections of the world. A family of loving kids represents childhood playing with the donkey in the hay, a excises in poetry shot of a swinging chair, and in the background grooming the donkey. Baptizing represents religion, love heart engraved on a bench, the cruelness of whipping, hard labor, being materialized and hooves metal is all extremely scary from Balthazar’s perspective of the world. Pitch folks chase like Frankenstein starts leading Balthazar's journey finding open gates almost like it's presenting a passage from hell to heaven. Strikingly shot, purposefully cruel characters looking down upon the donkey with no feelings. Fate made a hay intensity inducing sounds of rattling carriages to build tension and then silence with slowly creeping low piano keys lifting the moods. Youth is destroyed, and innocence vanished by the darkness of the world. Illness is presented by a bedridden small girl strangely feeding the donkey salt. Balthazar cheers up the children as the essence of childhood is fully captured in one short sequence. Only 9 minutes into the feature and already Au Hasard Balthazar has almost covered everything wrong and right about humans, that’s why this is one of the grandest films ever made. I was being reached on an emotional, thought-provoking level hardly any films give me. The main piano score music plays then rudely interrupted by a loud tractor representing the hard work humans go through to get to what everyone wants out of life, love, affection, safety, and purpose. We work because we have to serve society unless you’re ill seen early into the film. Marie represents many important aspects of society's statures femininity, beauty, pure-hearted, and gentleness but she’s placed within a terrifying circle of evilness. A brutal transition from Marie and her kind father to a gang of motorbike hoodlums pouring oil on the ground represents to me the endless void of crime in a saddening world. Balthazar with dread on his face is about to face bullying, the gang is going to pursue them but the audience already knows before something happens as Bresson's direction is flawless. Hardly any dialog is spoken in the first thirty minutes almost acting like a silent feature. The gang's first response is “A donkey neat, that's modern.”. The biker winks at the woman then the father without causing trouble (being outnumbered) whips the donkey quickly. Animals sense bad people but the bikers follow them as the left open the gates of heaven. The demons so to speak take revenge for not being noticed or feeding into their childish antics. Slowly walking Marie looks for leaves just like Balthazar looked for to eat in scenes prior is reflecting on Marie and Balthazar that they are both the same. They are beautiful, same morals, and live within a problematic world. Marie makes Balthazar a pretty flower, leaf coved crown almost like in the bible in a humble scene. Balthazar's expression is poignant he’s cleanly crying with joy looking back at her as she sits down to 10 seconds of silents apart from crickets. Suddenly she’s Powerless peaking through the narrow door watching in dismay of incoming trouble. Building again Bresons techie focuses on hands and feet shots for tension The shot slowly the biker hands slide ominously across the once scared bench of childhood hopes and dreams. He tries to touch her so she runs into the house as Balthazar is involved in horrific Dragging, nipping, taunting, and punching. Transitioning to choirs in church praying for god then the evil biker is there who will sing to bells ringing like the donkeys being a reminder. Bullying Balthazar continues, father in trouble from rumors then the camera moves inwards to Balthazar as a sign of heavy Obligation. Marie is too scared to make Gerald's crew escape the police but Balthazar is shot! We are empathizing with his sense of cold alarming doom. Balthazar’s final sacrament is phenomenal as I cried at the ending which is very rare for me, that’s how powerful the waves of sheep, bell sounds, and death of the saint donkey impacted me.
