This film is currently unavailable
Au hasard Balthazar
Robert Bresson’s pared-down style elicits extraordinary pathos from this devastating tale of an abused donkey passing from owner to owner.
Drama 1966 95 mins Not rated
Director: Robert Bresson
Overview
Animal protagonists are traditionally the preserve of sentimental stories for children, but while Bresson’s tragic masterpiece about the travails of a donkey has the simple force of a fable, it presents a brutally pessimistic vision. Punished, maltreated, used, loved, Balthazar is put to work by one keeper after another, bearing silent witness to the folly and petty cruelties of his human masters.
Related
Drama
The Bookshop
Drama 2017 113 mins Director: Isabel Coixet
Words run riot when a free-spirited bookseller (Emily Mortimer) introduces a sleepy town to a host of provocative literature
A Moment in the Reeds
Romance 2017 107 mins Director: Mikko Makela
The world’s troubles recede, at least for a moment, in this intimate drama about an affair between a Finnish man and a Syrian immigrant.
The Station Agent
Drama 2003 90 mins Director: Thomas McCarthy
Before Tyrion Lannister, Peter Dinklage excelled as another sardonic misanthrope in this award-winning indie comedy from director Tom McCarthy (Spotlight).
Citizen Ruth
Drama 1996 106 mins Director: Alexander Payne
Laura Dern is hilarious an addict unwittingly caught in the midst of America's culture wars, in Alexander Payne's superb first feature - previously unreleased in the UK.
Ismael's Ghosts
Drama 2017 135 mins Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Marion Cotillard, Mathieu Amalric and Charlotte Gainsbourg form a bizarre love triangle at the heart of Arnaud Desplechin's elaborate, playful comic-thriller.
The Ciambra
Drama 2017 118 mins Director: Jonas Carpignano
A boy's life on the mean streets of a cloistered Calabrian community is captured in eye-opening realism, in this stunning work from the director of Mediterranea.
Sight & Sound
Apocalypse Now
War 1979 141 mins Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Transplanting Joseph Conrad’s colonial-era novel Heart of Darkness to Vietnam, Coppola created a mesmerising fantasia on the spectacle of war.
New
McQueen
Biopic 2018 111 mins Director: Ian Bonhôte
In scintillating fashion, this compelling documentary explores the dark dreams that drove the brilliant, lamented designer, Alexander McQueen.
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
Documentary 2017 206 mins Director: Frederick Wiseman
An immersive journey into the New York Public Library with great documentarian Frederick Wiseman.
The Bookshop
Drama 2017 113 mins Director: Isabel Coixet
Words run riot when a free-spirited bookseller (Emily Mortimer) introduces a sleepy town to a host of provocative literature
Scene Nun, Take One
Comedy 1964 26 mins Director: Maurice Hatton
Susannah York plays a mischievously wayward actress mistaken for a nun in this comedy short shot in Swinging 60s London
Son of Fred
1956 19 mins Director: Richard Lester
Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan serve up some inspired goonery in this madcap Milligan-penned crazy comedy show from 1956.
Miss Mactaggart Won't Lie Down
Comedy 1966 28 mins Director: Francis Searle
Sprightly Scottish spinster Miss MacTaggart makes an unexpected return from the dead in this gentle character comedy.