Mouchette (1967)

 Robert Bresson's "Mouchette"

In my recent film class, we discussed the French filmmaker Robert Bresson. More explicitly, we discussed his usage of non-professional actors and the intense pre-filming months-long rehearsals they go through. The reason for these extensive rehearsals is due to Bresson's desire for his actors to pull back from delivering lines with projected emotion. The result of this anti-theatrical method of performing is something far more mechanical. Mechanical is the key word for the films of Bresson, especially in the film we watched for that class, 1967's "Mouchette." 

"Mouchette" centers on a young girl named Mouchette in a small French village. As her bedridden mother is on the verge of death, Mouchette must contend with an alcoholic father who beats her, along with a town full of people who treat her with cruelty. While walking home from school one day, she gets lost in the woods when a rainstorm begins. She witnesses an alcoholic poacher wound and possibly kill a gamekeeper. The poacher takes her in and wants to use her as an alibi for his crime. When she admits to what she saw him do, he rapes her. The next morning, her mother dies and Mouchette drowns herself in the lake. 

While watching the film, I kept returning back to the word 'mechanical.' Despite the occasional moment of tears or emotion, most of the performances by the characters demonstrate a lack of expression. This is not the only way Bresson limits the emotional component to characters' behaviors. He also likes to film characters' hands and feet when they are performing actions or walking in general. This really aids in limiting the individuality and emotional component to the functions of the characters. It is also interesting at to the logic behind the characters' behaviors, as they typically perform their behaviors without any sort of concrete logic or reason. Bresson renders logic and reason to be a moot point. Because of this, there is a sort of senselessness to what is happening. This only makes the tragedy of the story that much more tragic. The cruelty depicted on screen is without any sort of meaning. 

There is also a lot of ambiguity and lack of clarity surrounding the actual plot and events of the story, which only adds to the lack of meaning found within the behaviors of the characters. Events that happened are questioned by the other characters. The existence of a cyclone that Mouchette learns about one night is questioned by the villagers the next morning. The death of the gamekeeper turned out not to be a death at all, as he was well and alive the next morning. There is such a lack of clarity over what is happening that it makes all other elements of the story pervasively unmeaningful. 

What's even more interesting about Bresson's thematic choices is how much he differentiates it from his previous film, 1966's "Au Hasard Balthazar." Both films are relatively similar in that they both a tapestry of human cruelty, detailing the utter senselessness of reality and human behavior. However, the donkey from "Au Hasard Balthazar" is elevated above this cruelty by depicting the animal as 'holy' or beyond reproach, making the donkey a true Christ-like victim full of ultimate purity taking on the sins of the world. With "Mouchette," however, Bresson depicts the tagic child as being just as cruel as everyone else around her. She is not a pure victim, even though she IS a victim. But, she is just a product of her environment and is essentially just as part of this tapestry of cruelty as everyone else is. In "Mouchette," there is no escaping the cruelty and tragedy of the human soul in any capacity. 

On a final note, I reflect on the film and the thing that comes forward in my mind most is the essential dirtiness of the film. The subject matter and the bleak and cold tone of the film renders feelings of discomfort and grime in itself. However, Bresson is able to use visual dirtiness as a brushstroke to enable this emotion, as well. Throughout the film, there are constant visual renderings of mud and rain. Characters are constantly unkept. When characters drink, the drink is always pouring down their face and chin. Mud is dragged into clean houses. Mouchette has hay in her hair and when she rolls down the hill into the lake to her death, she is rolling over dirt and leaves. There are repeated images of unkept dirtiness, grime, and discomforting imagery that only further illustrates Bresson's main thematic point.

Overall, "Mouchette" is quite an achievement by Bresson. It is a bleak depiction of the human soul and demonstrates the utter senselessness of our cruelty and suffering. It has been hailed by many of being one of Bresson's masterpieces, and I can say that I fully agree on its merit. Quite a film.