Mouchette
| Mouchette | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Bresson |
| Written by | Robert Bresson |
| Produced by | Anatole Dauman |
| Starring | Nadine Nortier Jean-Claude Guilbert Maria Cardinal Paul Hebert |
| Cinematography | Ghislain Cloquet |
| Edited by | Raymond Lamy |
| Music by | Jean Wiener Claudio Monteverdi |
| Distributed by | UGC / CFDC |
Release dates | October 26, 1967 |
Running time | 78 min. |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Mouchette is a 1967 French film directed by Robert Bresson, starring Nadine Nortier, and Jean-Claude Guilbert. It is based on the novel by Georges Bernanos. "Mouchette" means "little fly" in French.
According to Bresson, "Mouchette offers evidence of misery and cruelty. She is found everywhere: wars, concentration camps, tortures, assassinations." Bresson uses "flat" direction of his non-actors and creates a rhythm through editing and shot design.
The Criterion Collection DVD release includes a trailer for this film made by Jean-Luc Godard.
Plot
This film is the tale of a young girl whose life meets with countless tragedies. Mouchette (Nadine Nortier) lives in an isolated rural village with her alcoholic father and bed-stricken mother, where she is forced to take care of her infant brother and do all of the housework. At school, Mouchette is mocked and ignored by her classmates and teacher.
Mouchette goes to the fair and looks longingly at the bumper cars. A woman gives her some tokens, which Mouchette then uses to ride the bumper cars.
One night, during a rainstorm, Mouchette becomes lost in the woods. She is found by Mr. Arsène (Jean-Claude Guilbert), an epileptic game poacher and drunkard. Unsure of whether he had just murdered a man, Arsène convinces Mouchette to stay with him, using her as an alibi. As she tries to leave, he throws her to the floor and rapes her. She returns home, where her sick mother dies in the night. Adding to her misery, she is called a slut by a store clerk who notices scratch marks on her chest, due to her top button being undone (undone buttons at the top of a womans shirt in this time would mean prostitute). She decides to take her life into her own hands, throwing herself down a hill and into a body of water, and drowns.
Cast
Besides his preference for non-professional actors, Bresson also liked to cast actors he had never used before. The one major exception to his policy is Jean-Claude Guilbert, who had the rôle of Arnold in Au hasard Balthazar, and is Arsène in this film.[1]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Nadine Nortier | Mouchette |
| Jean-Claude Guilbert | Arsène |
| Marie Cardinal | Mother |
| Paul Hebert | Father |
| Jean Vimenet | Mathieu |
| Marie Susini | Mathieu's wife |
| Suzanne Huguenin | Layer Out of the Dead |
| Marine Trichet | Louisa |
| Raymonde Chabrun | Grocer |
References
- ^ Joseph Cunneen, "The Purity of Rebellion: Mouchette" Robert Bresson: A Spiritual Style in Film. New York: Continuum (2003): 118. "Jean-Claude Guilbert, who had been Arnold in Balthasar, is used here again as Arsène, the only "return" of a Bresson model."
External links
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