La voix du rossignol / Au hasard Balthazar
Fri 07.06.
20:00
Cinema
Arsenal 1
Director
Ladislas Starevich
France / 1923
13 min.
/ 16 mm
/ English intertitles
LA VOIX DU ROSSIGNOL is an early cinematic illustration of what the wisdom of animals can teach us, a charming animated fairy tale in which a nightingale makes a little girl grasp its specific experience. (jl)
Director
Robert Bresson
France, Sweden / 1966
95 min.
/ 35 mm
/ Original version with English subtitles
Original language
French
The titular donkey from Robert Bresson’s endlessly moving drama counts among film history’s most famous non-human protagonists. Caressed by children and garlanded with flowers, Balthazar comes into the world in atypically idyllic fashion in the French countryside before a life of harsh service begins, as the mule is passed from one uncaring owner to the next and back-breaking work and casual cruelty become the order of the day. Balthazar’s fate may be commonplace for a beast of his kind, but his forbearance still offers up a lesson that resonates far beyond the animal realm: in a world of endless hardship for beings of all kinds, to endure is to find grace. (jl)
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