Mouchette
| Mouchette | |
|---|---|
Film poster
|
|
| Directed by | Robert Bresson |
| Produced by | Anatole Dauman |
| Screenplay by | Robert Bresson |
| Based on | Mouchette by Georges Bernanos |
| Starring |
Nadine Nortier Jean-Claude Guilbert Marie Cardinal Paul Hebert |
| Music by |
Jean Wiener Claudio Monteverdi |
| Cinematography | Ghislain Cloquet |
| Edited by | Raymond Lamy |
| Distributed by | UGC / CFDC |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
78 min. |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Mouchette (pronounced: [mu.ʃɛt]) is a 1967 French film directed by Robert Bresson, starring Nadine Nortier and Jean-Claude Guilbert. It is based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos. It was entered into the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, winning the OCIC Award (International Catholic Organization for Cinema and Audiovisual).
A coming-of-age story, Mouchette is set in a rural French village and follows the daughter of a bullying alcoholic father and ailing mother. Unfolding in the director's famously sparse and minimalist style, Bresson said that its titular character "offers evidence of misery and cruelty. She is found everywhere: wars, concentration camps, tortures, assassinations."
Mouchette is among Bresson's most acclaimed films. The Criterion Collection DVD release includes a trailer for the film made by Jean-Luc Godard.
The film opens with a gamekeeper, Mathieu (Jean Vimenet), watching a poacher, Arsène (Jean-Claude Gilbert), as he sets his snares in the sunlit woods. Mouchette (Nadine Nortier), whose name means "little fly," lives in an isolated French village with her alcoholic father and bedridden mother, where she takes care of her infant brother and does all the housework.
She is first introduced at her school, in bedraggled clothes and oversized clogs, where she is mocked by her classmates and chastised by her teacher, first for refusing to sing, and then for singing off-key. To correct this, her teacher grabs her by the head, orienting Mouchette's ear toward the piano keys, while striking the correct note several times. Later, Mouchette throws mud at several girls in her class who run away.
Later, in a contrast to the misery of her daily life, Mouchette goes to the fair and rides on the bumper cars. She meets a young man who bumps his car into hers several times. She bumps into his a few times. Despite the physical shocks incurred upon her during the activity, Mouchette seems to overlook them, and even likes the young man. Afterwards her father abruptly intervenes, slapping her on the face before she can speak to the boy.
...
Wikipedia