OscarGuy wrote:So, let's improve the level of discourse here and let our extreme feelings towards individuals be replaced by extreme feelings against Joel Schumacher or Michael Bay or something more constructive.
How dare you speak of Joel and Michael that way! Why, I oughta...
I've not seen the film, nor am I ever likely to, but let's try to keep things civil. I know we all get hot-headed when our personal favorites are attacked whether unnecessarily or not, but we all have opinions. We all have likes and dislikes. They are not a shared item. We are film lovers and as such we share a commonality. We might not all agree on this film, but we might agree on others that still more will dislike.
Let's keep in mind that this is a community unlike any other and that, like it or not, we're all family. Just because you don't like someone or someone's opinion is no cause to treat them like shit.
So, let's improve the level of discourse here and let our extreme feelings towards individuals be replaced by extreme feelings against Joel Schumacher or Michael Bay or something more constructive.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
Balthazar is a film which I adore - just thinking about it makes me feel like weeping - but to balance things for poor Penelope - who seems to be coming in for some pretty unreasonable ridicule here - my best friend, whose taste lines up pretty closely with mine on most things, despised it.
Anyone who is blind/deaf to the offerings of Balthazar deserves cruelty. Anyone who espouses their blindness/deafness on a board of halfway intelligent film fans is begging for it.
How about, Damien, instead of ridiculing me, which has seemingly been your favorite activity these past few months (and thus the source of my curiousity into why certain people are cruel and enjoy humiliating other people), how about elucidating your reasons why Au Hasard, Balthazar is a worthy film? Can you do that without resorting to invectives against another person? I mean, it is rather ironic (and hypocritical) that you ridicule a person for not liking a film that is specifically about spirituality and kindness as opposed to cruelty and humiliation.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
Penelope wrote:Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966; Robert Bresson) 1/10
Pretentious, dull, horribly acted religious fable. At least François Lafarge in his tight pants is nice to look at.
Yeah, I didn't care for it either. Is it your first Bresson? If it is, don't let it deter you.
Yes, it was. It wasn't so much Bresson that had me put it at the top of my Netflix queue but, rather, the fact that I've lately been seeking out films that explore the theme of cruelty, which has been much on my mind lately.
Two films I watched earlier this week - The Best Way to Walk and Valentino - explored the theme of cruelty (and its byproduct, humiliation) with considerable skill and effect, without hammering the issue over the audiences head. Having heard that Au Hasard, Balthazar was a meditation on cruelty (aside from other things), I moved it to the top of my list.
Now, I don't mind slow, meditative, deliberately paced films - just recently I adored Broken Sky and I've even grown to admire if not exactly love The New World. But, for me, the biggest mistake in Au Hasard, Balthazar is that everything is on the surface and the (badly acted) characters behave like numbskulls. With Bresson's film, I didn't get the sense that there was anything going on under the surface and, because of that, I found myself not particularly caring what happened to the poor donkey (besides, didn't Anna Sewell cover this nearly a century earlier in Black Beauty?).
Ken Russell's Valentino could very well be the antithesis of Bresson's film, what with Russell's usual outré excess - yet it's a much more affecting film: the casting of Rudolf Nureyev as Valentino makes the theme of cruelty vis a vis the idea of masculinity that much more interesting. And Patrick Dewaere in The Best Way to Walk gives one of the best portrayals of how cruelty originates in suppressed sexual desire. These films, despite some flaws, had a subtext that Au Hasard, Balthazar completely lacked.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
This is the George Hearn/Patti LuPone performance on DVD.
Most every aspect of the play was good except one and I think you can fairly easily guess it:
Patti LuPone. What an awful, awful performer. The character isn't known for her musical ability, but at least when Lansbury did it, she wasn't screeching operatic notes and sustaining crappier ones. The finale was really quite good until hear mealy-mouthed delivery arrived and held notes that should never have been held were hit. She ruined nearly every scene she was in, but still managed to get a rousing round of applause for her two big numbers (By the Sea and Worst Pies in London).
And although I think he was too clean cut vocally at times, Neil Patrick Harris did quite well as Toby.
I don't remember names and I'm posting in haste, so forgive me, but the actress who played Joanna was better than I had expected after hearing so many renditions that weren't quite the right strength in the upper register. Anthony was good, but has been done better. The judge and the beadle were also solid, but was not a fan of their operatic indulgences. Yes, the play can lend itself to that kind of performance, but I've always been more of a fan of traditional musical interpretation.
I can only imagine what could have been done without the overt operatic excesses and by kicking the obnoxious LuPone to the curb.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin