Producer · 1916–2019

Mag Bodard

3: briefs
13:00: average
39 min: in total

On film.briefs3

Peau d'Âne

Jacques Demy · 1970

Jacques Demy’s 1970 musical fantasy Peau d’Âne adapts Perrault’s Donkeyskin with meticulous visual and musical precision. Catherine Deneuve stars as a princess who flees her father’s incestuous proposal by donning a magic donkey skin, finding refuge and love in disguise. Shot across historic French châteaux, scored by Michel Legrand, and designed with sumptuous, symbolic costumes, the film treats folklore as a self-contained system of rules, colour, and ritual — not a psychological case study. Its power lies in consistency, not catharsis.

13:00

Au Hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson · 1966

Robert Bresson’s 1966 film follows Balthazar, a donkey, through successive owners in rural France. Told with austere precision, it uses non-professional actors, restrained cinematography by Ghislain Cloquet, and near-silent observation to trace endurance, indifference, and quiet violation. Marie, played by Anne Wiazemsky, ages alongside Balthazar, her decline mirroring his — though neither is granted interiority. The film’s power lies in accumulation, not exposition; its final image — Balthazar dying among sheep — lands not as tragedy but as quiet, inevitable fact.

13:00

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Jacques Demy · 1964

Jacques Demy’s 1964 film tells the story of Geneviève and Guy, young lovers in Cherbourg separated by war and circumstance. Every line is sung to Michel Legrand’s continuous score; Jean Rabier’s cinematography uses saturated, deliberate colour; and the narrative unfolds across five years with formal rigour and emotional restraint. It won the Palme d’Or and remains a landmark of musical and arthouse cinema.