The story of a donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly.
Rated 3.0 / 5 from 1 log on Katalog
Godard said this movie is the world in a nutshell. It deals with suffering, pain, kindness, cruelty, compassion and, supposedly, everything else. But there’s also Bergman who called it “so completely boring” and, while I can make an intellectual stretch to see where Godard’s coming from, emotionally it affected me very little so I’m slightly leaning towards Bergman’s side on this one. I see it as a movie about a donkey that has to put up with a bunch of insufferable French people for his entire life. With this perspective, rather than tragic, the ending felt liberating, for both the donkey and myself.
