Mouchette (1967)

Mouchette (1967)

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“I love the dead; I understand them.”

Synopsis:
A teenager (Nadine Nortier) in rural France endures a life of abuse, ridicule, and death all around her.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Coming of Age
  • French Films
  • Living Nightmare
  • Robert Bresson Films

Review:
Robert Bresson’s eight feature-length film — following (among other titles) the GFTFF-listed Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945), Diary of a Country Priest (1951), Pickpocket (1959), and Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966) — was this adaptation of Georges Bernanos’ 1937 novel of the same name. As indicated in my synopsis above, with just one notable, brief exception during a bumper car ride at a fair:

… there is nothing but pure misery on display here, made worse — for me, anyway — through Bresson’s intentionally stylized method of having his non-actors simply move through their scenes like automatons. Nortier (who never made another movie) does still manage to tug at our heartstrings, making it all the more distressing to watch her suffering nearly endless indignities and abuses, such as having her head shoved into a piano at school when she doesn’t get a chorus note just right:

… being teased and taunted by her classmates:

… caretaking for her infant brother while tending to her mortally ill mother:

… and being coerced into lying on behalf of (then being assaulted by) an alcoholic, epileptic poacher.

While this remains among Bresson’s most acclaimed films, and is beloved by many — including Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky — I’m not among this crowd of admirers.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Stark cinematography

Must See?
No. Listed as a film with Historical Importance and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

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One thought on “Mouchette (1967)”

  1. First viewing (6/25/20). Not must-see.

    A minor Bresson work, which inexplicably is widely considered to be one of his best films. Yet it’s painfully dull – and an instance in which using non-professional actors simply worked against the film. They’re not up to it – but the larger issue is that it’s just not a very good script. In fact, at times the script is nonsensical on its own terms.

    According to Wikipedia: Bresson said that its titular character “offers evidence of misery and cruelty. She is found everywhere: wars, concentration camps, tortures, assassinations.” …That’s a bit much. A pretentious statement that has nothing to do with the specifics of the film, handing it a weight that it simply doesn’t have.

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