Mouchette is a 1967 French film directed by Robert Bresson, based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos. The film follows the story of a young girl named Mouchette, who is living in a rural French village and facing immense hardship and tragedy.
The film opens with Mouchette being chased through the woods by a group of boys. She manages to escape, but the scene sets the tone for the rest of the film, as Mouchette is constantly bullied and mistreated by those around her. Her father is an alcoholic and her mother is dying of tuberculosis, leaving Mouchette to care for her younger siblings on her own. She is also constantly belittled by her schoolteacher and ignored by her classmates.
As the film progresses, Mouchette's hardships only seem to increase. She is sexually assaulted by a local poacher and becomes pregnant as a result. When she confides in the local midwife, she is met with disdain and betrayal, as the midwife reveals the assault to the poacher, leading to Mouchette being ostracized by the community.
Despite all of this, Mouchette remains a resilient and determined character. She refuses to let her circumstances define her and continues to find small moments of joy and beauty in her life. She finds solace in nature and in caring for her younger siblings, and she even tries to reach out to the poacher, showing a sense of compassion and understanding that is rare in someone so young and facing such difficult circumstances.
Ultimately, the film ends on a tragic note, as Mouchette takes her own life. It is a powerful and moving depiction of the devastating effects of poverty, abuse, and neglect on a young person's life.
Mouchette is a deeply affecting film that will stay with you long after you've finished watching it. It is a powerful reminder of the importance of compassion and understanding, and a call to action to do better for those who are struggling and marginalized. Despite its dark themes, it is a film that is
Mouchette 1966, directed by Robert Bresson
The film cuts to Mouchette rolling down a hill with the now dirty and ragged dress wrapped around her. En rentrant chez elle, Mouchette assiste à la mort de sa mère, sans avoir le temps de se confier à elle. In fact, the adult world is so artificial and schematic that, as far as Mouchette is concerned, there is a sense of unreality to it. Eventually he overpowers her and rapes her, and she ultimately submits. He tries to use Mouchette to build an alibi. Running time 81 min.
There is an establishing shot of a stream that returns at the very end of the film. Retrieved August 5, 2016. Even though the hopes for meaningful personal relationships are ultimately frustrated, at least the quest for genuine human engagement is observable and once or twice seems possible. New York: Continuum 2003 : 118. Filmed almost exclusively in closeups, the scene compels the viewer to patch together the images and to try and make the connections.
She runs off into the nearby forest, but she gets caught in a sudden rainstorm and hides under a tree to wait it out. After school, Mouchette hides near the road and flings mud at her better-dressed classmates. Both Marie and Balthazar may have engaged our sympathies, but not our empathy. She turns back and rolls down again out of frame and stops in-frame at the bank of the stream, near the flowers we saw earlier. Finally, she is invited into the house of an elderly woman, who gives her a dress to wear at the funeral and a shroud to cover her mother.
‎Mouchette (1967) directed by Robert Bresson • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd
Despite being so young, she has to take care of her sick mother and her baby brother while enduring the mistreatment of her father, the contempt of the people of the village and the constant humiliations to which she is subjected. But the adult world, dominated as it is by artefacts, machines, and mechanical manipulation, seems to offer her no opportunities for a self-defining human relationship. After she leaves, the camera remains fixed on her empty chair, thereby establishing the visual motif of absence and isolation that will dominate the film. . Mouchette's suffering has been read as religious parable, whereby her ostracism at school, the cruel neglect by her father, the insinuating glances of the villagers and her gruelling domestic duties stand for the Stations of the Cross. But after an initial fistfight, they fall to the ground and are soon laughing and drinking whiskey together like old comrades.
Please send us a If you are not a registered user please send us an email to info filmaffinity. According to academic Mouchette. That is why she swears that she would die for him and why she defends him to the gamekeeper even after he raped her. Mouchette quickly gets up at the sound of a tractor and waves to the man driving it. Mais il finit par la violer.
Beautiful subtle and tender film that is full of ambiguity and emotions, this is the one that clicks with me. On her way to get milk, a shopkeeper sees a scratch on her chest and calls her a "little slut. But apart from the nature of authorship, there are other distinctions and points of comparison between Mouchette and Au Hasard Balthazar, as I will elaborate further. Bresson always forces the viewer to construct his own, individual diegesis. Then two bootleggers unload a truck full of whiskey crates and deliver them to the tavern.
No Way Out 27 minutes. These minor misdemeanors are indicative of her limited opportunities for free expression and action. «Champs Visuels», septembre 2012, 148 p. What is real, and what is not? After downing shots of whiskey, they drive home, where Mouchette is attending her sick mother the woman seen initially. But by the time of the filming of Mouchette, Bresson eschewed such causation-infected narrative contrivances, to the detriment of the viewing experience.
