This is a film about a donkey and given that this is a tragedy and it is supposed to have been inspired by a passage by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, it’s a given that the donkey dies in the end. It also suffers horribly but then so do many of the people around it. This is considered one of the greatest films of all time and of course it’s not really about a donkey in particular but life in general. I think its messaging is a little too simple by modern standards but it is very effective at engaging your emotions.

The children of a wealthy landowning family in the Pyrenees insist on adopting a baby donkey and baptize it as Balthazar. The eldest son Jacques is a childhood sweetheart of Marie who lives next door and carves a declaration of love on a bench. But then his sister dies of an illness and the family moves away. Balthazar is given over to the care of Marie and her father is given permission to work the farm of Jacques’ family. Years later Marie grows into a beautiful young woman and Balthazar is given over to farmhands to do hard labor. She attracts the attention of Gérard, the leader of a local youth gang. When she initially rebuffs him and he realizes that she loves the donkey, he viciously beats Balthazar. Eventually Gérard rapes her and she acquiesces into an abusive relationship with him, running away from her parents. Later Balthazar falls sick and Marie’s father is about to euthanize him when Arnold, a wandering alcoholic, offers to take him on. The donkey’s health improves while he is on the road as Arnold uses him to carry tourists. However he also has a habit of beating Balthazar up when he gets drunk.

There’s much more to the story of Balthazar’s life with its many ups and downs, and of course no matter what happens to him, he always seems to find his way back to Marie. There are definitely far more downs than ups though and this mirrors the trajectory of Marie’s life as well. The dialogue is sparse so we are meant to guess at the specific details. This opens the door to interpret the film as being about life in general instead of just a donkey. In between Balthazar being forced to work so hard that he develops sores, Marie refusing to return to her parents despite Gérard’s abuse, her own father’s pride that leads him to lose his farm to Jacques’ parents, Arnold being suspected of murder and then suddenly winning a fortune, there’s a little bit of everything in here to reflect the unpredictable vicissitudes of life. For one short moment, Balthazar even transforms into a circus show animal which is amusing but a little too trite. The overall picture is depressing as befits a work inspired by Dostoyevsky and evinces a cynical view of life. The rich miller who briefly takes Marie in proclaims the supreme importance of money and how it is the key to true freedom. Every spark of romanticism, hope and idealism, as represented by Marie, is well and truly quenched and ground into the dust.

The point about seeing life in general through the eyes of a donkey is that it is a simple animal with no agency and no capacity for higher thought. Robert Bresson doesn’t make Balthazar a special donkey in any way. It enjoys being pampered by Marie, runs away when beaten by Arnold and otherwise can do nothing except submit to whatever happens to it. It’s a worldview that I disagree with but I can’t deny how powerfully Bresson gets his point across. I will note that not everyone’s life as shown in this film is as depressing. Jacques certainly seems to have led a good life, thanks to his family’s money and though his childhood promise to Marie is left behind, it’s not like he’s evil. Gérard on the other hand is actively malicious and selfish, yet he is also the type of person who goes out and gets things done. I don’t understand why he isn’t arrested by the police for his many crimes or even suffer any repercussions at all. Yet it can be argued that he is proof a life lived with agency and experienced to the fullest is possible. Marie and Balthazar’s passive acceptance of whatever happens to them, resulting in tragedy, is hardly the only path through life.

This is a film that simultaneously ahead of its time and finely crafted, yet also old-fashioned. It’s beautifully made and powerfully unsentimental in its depiction of the harshness of life. Yet after we have already accepted that neither life nor a cinematic portrayal of it, is not all sunshine and roses, this isn’t a particularly sophisticated treatment and other films have since done it better. This was great in its time but there’s a good reason why it’s no longer seen as being among the greatest today.