Mouchette (1967)
A beautifully shot (in B&W) but sparse, laconic adaptation of the story of a poor rural French girl who must deal with a sick mother, a baby brother, an alcoholic father, an abusive teacher, and insults by fellow villagers.
While the story seems set further back in time than the time of production (as it deals with poaching, illegal liquor sales in an ancient truck, and with no modern conveniences present in the impoverished home,), it sometimes seems invaded by odd anachronisms which the production then proceeds to ignore; for all we know the story might still be set in the (then) present.
Since there is little dialogue, other than the miserable conditions we see and the girl’s jealous responses to seeing others' improved life conditions or her response to assault, we get almost nothing of her internal life, assuming this is what the novel does.
We do see her going to school, making breakfast for her family (coffee and milk), taking care of her baby brother (whose crying reaches near Eraserhead levels), working at a bar in exchange for a few coins (her father then takes from her), relying on charity for entertainment, food, and clothes. Much is made of the oversized shoes she wears.
The film finally comes to a head one evening when she is caught by a rainstorm in the middle of the forest and witnesses a fight between the drunken epileptic poacher and the gamekeeper, a sequence which then extends nearly to the end of the feature.
The pessimistic conclusion has an obvious reading but remains enigmatic with footage of a creek running then rewound repeatedly creating an odd, surreal effect whose hint of escape possibly informed later fantasies such as Lucio Fulci's Quella villa accanto al cimitero or Guillermo del Toro's El Laberinto del Fauno.
Scenes of animal cruelty (rabbit hunting and bird traps) might be disturbing to some.
With Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal, and Paul Hebert.
Check it out.
A beautifully shot (in B&W) but sparse, laconic adaptation of the story of a poor rural French girl who must deal with a sick mother, a baby brother, an alcoholic father, an abusive teacher, and insults by fellow villagers.
While the story seems set further back in time than the time of production (as it deals with poaching, illegal liquor sales in an ancient truck, and with no modern conveniences present in the impoverished home,), it sometimes seems invaded by odd anachronisms which the production then proceeds to ignore; for all we know the story might still be set in the (then) present.
Since there is little dialogue, other than the miserable conditions we see and the girl’s jealous responses to seeing others' improved life conditions or her response to assault, we get almost nothing of her internal life, assuming this is what the novel does.
We do see her going to school, making breakfast for her family (coffee and milk), taking care of her baby brother (whose crying reaches near Eraserhead levels), working at a bar in exchange for a few coins (her father then takes from her), relying on charity for entertainment, food, and clothes. Much is made of the oversized shoes she wears.
The film finally comes to a head one evening when she is caught by a rainstorm in the middle of the forest and witnesses a fight between the drunken epileptic poacher and the gamekeeper, a sequence which then extends nearly to the end of the feature.
The pessimistic conclusion has an obvious reading but remains enigmatic with footage of a creek running then rewound repeatedly creating an odd, surreal effect whose hint of escape possibly informed later fantasies such as Lucio Fulci's Quella villa accanto al cimitero or Guillermo del Toro's El Laberinto del Fauno.
Scenes of animal cruelty (rabbit hunting and bird traps) might be disturbing to some.
With Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal, and Paul Hebert.
Check it out.
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