dimanche 4 octobre 2009

A bit of sainthood.



This is the final sequence of the film "Au hasard Balthazar" by Robert Bresson (1966).

Here is what they say about it on IMDB and Wikipedia.


The very last notes of music are from the beginning of the 2nd mvt of Schubert’ piano sonata in A major D. 959.

These are pictures which haunt you through the rest of your life.

5 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit…

I had never heard of this movie. I watched a few other scenes on Youtube and read some reviews of it. Such a lovely unproduced film which relies on the skills of the director instead of relying on fancy cinematic devices and popular actors.

One review said that it was unavailable in the United States and yet I thought it must be available in some places such as Seattle, and sure enough

There is an interesting list of reviews for the film available at the Rotten Tomatoes website.

Thank you for pointing out this film.

I note that you seem to have a similar theme in what you've been posting lately. ;)

Flocon a dit…

Even in France, Robert Bresson isn't, and never was, what one would call trendy and popular, far from it.

His films are quite demanding for the audience and I perfectly recall the first time I saw one of his movies, how disturbed I was with the eery and strange tone that emanated from the screen.

One's got to get used to it, it's part of what makes his films unique.

Your research was quite worth the pain. I didn't know Seattle was a hotbed of film critics and festivals.

Among the reviews of the films as listed by Rotten Tomatoes I noticed this one from the NYT :

"This is neither an easy film, nor, in the show biz sense, an entertaining one. It makes large demands upon its audience, and in return confers exceptional rewards."

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I note that you seem to have a similar theme in what you've been posting lately. ;)

You're right Anijo. Perhaps aging and personnal experience help to see life under another and more clarifying light...

For exemple, I've turned vegetarian.

Anonyme a dit…

I'm curious what was your motivation for turning vegetarian if you don't mind my asking. I suppose I could give up meat, but I would really miss it.

Flocon a dit…

Anijo,

We're living in societies, which from "all eternity", consider animals like inferior beings just good for eating and being used for their muscular forces. Some sort of engines, or moving objects without feelings.

Yet we are animals too, just of a unique sort : we are conscious of what we are and we can act upon our environment.

But animals, and I think of our closest cousins, the mammals, are like us : they have one heart, two kidneys, two lungs etc. and they suffer as much as we do.

In our monotheist cultures, it's ingrained since we're were born that we have no responsibility toward animals, we can treat them as we like it.

There's one of the four voyages in Gullivers' travels where horses have taken the place of humans. That's good food for thought.

Pain and suffering is what the world and life are essentially made of.

I no longer want to be an accomplice of what's taking place in slaughter houses. Industrial killing has become unbearable to me like the unspeakable sufferings animals have suffered and still suffer at the hand of men since homo erectus has arised.

To the point torturing them (corrida and the like) is a pastime for some people. Talk about being sadistic!

It's not so much the indouist perspective that I have first in mind -altough quite honorable- but more simply, I see animals like another form of humans with the same needs and the same causes for pain and suffering.

A mare loves her colt just like a dolphin loves his/her partner.

"Tiere leiden stum" (animals suffer silently) was the title of a German program I once saw on tv.

When my beloved cat had to be put to death three years ago, he suffered from gangrena for about three weeks before I really took notice. He suffered silently but he showed signs that I probably didn't want to see. I still feel guilty for that.

Also, when I was 5 or 6, I attended the birth of a calf in a farm. What was his fate but to die under the butcher's knife?

Millions of animals come into being and are raised only to be killed, that's their raison d'être.

I don't want to be involved any longer in this monstruosity.

I know the killings will continue but without me participating.

Anonyme a dit…

Wow Flocon. What you just wrote was beautiful. And you are right. I am going to turn vegetarian. I've been buring my head in the sand ignoring all that you spoke of. This is a side of you that I was never aware of.

I watched a pair of doves raise two young birdies this summer and now that I hear the gunfire day after day after day out at the river, I wince thinking of how frightened the doves must be.