MOUCHETTE

France, 1967, 78 minutes, Black and white.
Nadine Nortier, Jean- Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal, Paul Hebert, Jean Vimenet.
Directed by Robert Bresson.

Mouchette comes rather later in Robert Bresson’s career. He is hailed by many film critics and commentators on culture as one of the great directors of the 20th century. Paul Schrader uses him as an example of transcendental film-making, austere, direct, luminous.

Bresson made his mark in the early 1950s with his Diary of a Country Priest, based on the novel by Georges Bernanos. He followed up in the 50s with such films as A Man Escaped and Pickpocket. He made four films in the 1960s, the first three considered classics: The Trial of Joan of Arc, Au Hasard Balthasar and Mouchette. He made five other films before he died, his last being L'Argent.

This film was also based on a novel by Bernanos, transferred from the 1930s to the 1950s. It gives something of a glimpse of what village life was like at that period, the town, the school, the bars, homes, the woods.

The film focuses on Nadine Nortier as Mouchette, a young teenager, in the need of affection, not receiving it from her father, caring for her sick mother and the other children. She is persecuted at school and gets revenge by throwing dirt at the schoolgirls. She works part-time in the bar, has a moment of joy in a dodgem car at the village fair – a rather prolonged sequence for what it was worth. However, she becomes entangled with a trapper in the woods, putting him on a pedestal, even after his abuse of her, defending him. However, she is someone who is very needy – and finishes by rolling down the hill – and into the river where she drowns.

1. A Bresson classic? French cinema? Transcendent cinema? The austerity of the film and its style of film-making? Minimal music?

2. The work of Georges Bernanos, transferring his story from the 1930s to the 1950s?

3. Black and white photography, the woods, the village, bar, home, school? The village fair – and the editing of the dodgem car sequence?

4. The title, the focus on the girl, a portrait, her hard life, experiencing physical disabilities, abuse? Her death?

5. The opening with the trap, Mathieu, the local policeman, watching Arsene? The snare, the bird going into the trap, the details of its struggle, finally getting free? Flying away? An image of Mouchette, the traps, her struggle, her getting away – but only by escaping from the village?

6. Mathieu, the policeman, in the bar, his relationship with Louisa? His wife? Warning Arsene? The clash with Arsene?

7. Arsene, the hunter, his attention to Louisa? In the woods, his hut, the clash with Mathieu, the wrestling, thinking he had killed Mathieu? Trying to get an alibi? Using Mouchette? Taking her home?

8. Mouchette at home, the opening with her ill mother, her father and his indifference, touches of brutality, the other children, Mouchette’s care, cooking, working? The work in the bar, the money, the drink?

9. Mouchette at school, the singing class, the hostility of the teacher, her false note, being dragged in front of the class? The girls laughing? Her going into the ditch, throwing earth at them? Hiding from them?

10. Sunday, the bar, the gift, her going on the dodgem car? Flirting with the young boy?

11. The woods, at night, the rain, Arsene, taking her home, her shoe in the mud, drying her off, the physical and sexual abuse? The effect on her?

12. The interrogation, Arsene and suspicions? Mathieu not dead? Mouchette and her claims of the relationship with Arsene? Her neediness for affection?

13. Her going to the woods, rolling down the hill, rolling into the water, the close-up of the water?

14. The impact of the film? Portrait of a young girl? Her harsh life, the need for love? Not receiving it?