Mouchette

Mouchette 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. Bresson explained his choice of the novel saying, "I found neither psychology or analysis in it. The substance of the book seemed usable. It could be sieved." 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 more acclaimed films. The Criterion Collection DVD release includes a trailer for the film made by Jean-Luc Godard. The Artificial Eye DVD release includes a 29 minute documentary filmed on set about the making of the film. Plot Mouchette, whose name means "little fly," lives in an isolated French village with her alcoholic father and bedridden, dying mother, taking care of her infant brother and doing all the housework. She is ostracized at school for her bedraggled clothes and chastised by her teacher for refusing to sing.