Au hasard Balthazar 1966

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Bresson is one of the few directors for whom cinema was both an aesthetic and spiritual pursuit, a search that was reflected in films for which the words 'sublime,' 'transcendent' and 'masterpiece' can seem somehow lacking. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: It is a devastating picture, scored to a Schubert piano sonata and done with a purity and austerity that transfixes us. Read more

Roger Greenspun, New York Times: 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. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: No film I have ever seen has come so close to convulsing my entire being as has Au Hasard Balthazar. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: Perhaps the greatest and most revolutionary of Bresson's films, Balthazar is a difficult but transcendently rewarding experience, never to be missed. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Bresson is one of the saints of the cinema, and Au Hasard Balthazar is his most heartbreaking prayer. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Quietly devastating, nearly perfect allegory. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The film could have sunk beneath this symbolic burden, yet it is lightened by the speed and precision of Bresson's art; he could derive more from one pair of hands than most directors can from two hours of blood and guts. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: The film is perhaps the director's most perfectly realised, and certainly his most moving. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The supreme masterpiece by one of the greatest of 20th-century filmmakers. Read more