Mouchette (1967)

Dir. Robert Bresson , French w. English subtitles, France

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Sun 4 November 2012 // 19:30 / Cinema

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Bresson’s last black and white film. From it’s stunning opening scene Bresson follows the earthy sullen Mouchette through life to the night of the great storm.

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PLOT

Faced with a dying mother, an absent, alcoholic father, and a baby brother in need of care, the teenage Mouchette seeks solace in nature and daily routine, a respite from her economic and pubescent turmoil. An essential work of French filmmaking, Bresson’s hugely empathetic drama elevates its trapped protagonist into one of the cinema’s great tragic figures. 

It is based on the novel by Georges Bernanos.

REVIEWS

“Robert Bresson plumbs great reservoirs of feeling with Mouchette, one of the most searing portraits of human desperation ever put on film.” – Criterion Collection 

“One of Bresson’s twin masterpieces of the mid-sixties” with Au Hasard Balthasar, James Qandt

Sight and Sound’sprestigious critics’ poll placed Mouchette in the top 20 in 1972