Splinters

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That?s how the light gets in
-Anthem, Leonard Cohen

The only two films Robert Bresson directed in consecutive years, at times Au hasard Balthazar (1966) and Mouchette (1967) seem joined at the hip. Trapped in stifling small towns, the donkey Balthazar and the teenage girl Mouchette face near-constant abuse and misfortune. Much has been made of Bresson?s interest in the states of grace and sainthood, and each of the main characters can be seen as the crevice through which a more vibrant world makes itself felt in the dark-tinted fictional reality.

Death stuffs the crevice and blocks the light. Once the wounded Balthazar lays its head down on the meadow, the cut to ?Fin? is immediate. Once Mouchette commits suicide by rolling downhill into a lake, the ripples sway for a while until the end arrives. Once the central presence of each film has ceased to be, the viewer witnesses the quick dissipation of the imaginary world.

Although Mouchette and Au hasard Balthazar are more severe in tone than Pickpocket, it would be a mistake to think that they are brooding or hard-going. Bresson?s cinematic mastery binds together action and character with a refreshing economy: Mouchette carelessly making coffee, the drunken Ars?ne throwing away ashes, the manner in which three drinking glasses are put down one after the other.

Most (theatrically-minded) filmmakers see the actor?s face as a piece of legal prose. That is, they think the meaning of the face should be transparent in terms of intent and response. But with a Bressonian model or non-actor (Nadine Nortier as Mouchette is a perfect example), the viewer doesn?t feel that the facial expressions are following a script or a rule of law. As a consequence, the faces of Bresson?s models are filled with a palpable sense of anticipation and openness.

The plots of Au hasard Balthazar and Mouchette could easily be reduced to fables or parables on dark themes. The formal beauty of the works might persuade the viewer to believe the fictions, and some of Bresson?s admirers see him as the illustrator of life?s ultimate realities. I think it would be enough to say that Bresson has succeeded in creating artful reflections. A truth in rhyme (au hasard Balthazar?) is not the whole truth, but the inventive mirror may help the viewer to experience the world with a new sensibility.