Mouchette Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Mouchette Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 7, 2020

Robert Bresson's "Mouchette" (1967) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film created by Jean-Luc Godard; archival audio commentary by critic Tony Rayns; Theodor Kotulla's documentary "Zum Beispiel Bresson"; and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The titular character (Nadine Nortier) in Robert Bresson’s Mouchette is a young girl who desperately wants to be loved. But in the village where she lives the girl is ignored by everyone -- her alcoholic father never has time for her because he is always busy drinking, her terminally ill mother can’t talk to her because she is constantly in pain, her teacher can’t stand her, and her classmates prefer to stay as far away from her as possible.

Like a hurt animal that needs to lick its wounds, Mouchette frequently runs away from school and hides in the nearby forest. There the silence relaxes her and she temporarily forgets about her miserable existence.

At the local fair a boy finally treats Mouchette like a normal human being -- he repeatedly smiles at her while hitting her bumper car. Later on Mouchette approaches the boy, but before she can talk to him her father appears and angrily pushes her away.

While walking through the forest, Mouchette gets lost. When the night comes down, Arsene (Jean-Claude Guilbert), a lonely epileptic with a serious drinking problem, discovers her. He takes Mouchette to his cabin and then confesses to her that he might have killed another man (Jean Vimenet) because they both desired the same woman. She agrees to provide an alibi for him when the police come asking questions, but instead of thanking her Arsene rapes her.

On the following morning, Mouchette returns home and shortly after her mother dies. When her angry father confronts her, she goes out to find milk for her baby brother. While walking around the village, Mouchette slowly comes to the conclusion that her life is worthless.

Based on Georges Bernanos’ novel, Robert Bresson’s Mouchette may well be the ultimate miserabilist film. Indeed, there is so much pain in it that is filmed with such pure intensity that by the time the final credits roll one truly feels as if one has witnessed the tragic collapse of a family member without being able to do anything meaningful to prevent it.

The film is broken into multiple uneven episodes, each capturing a small segment of Mouchette’s misery. The overwhelming majority of the time Bresson’s camera simply observes the girl as she absorbs the resentment around her. Occasionally she rebels, but her actions never have the desired effect and eventually she loses interest in being part of reality. And rightfully so, what’s the point of existing until your time comes up?

Nortier, who was only 18 years old at the time when the film was shot and had no previous acting experience, is sensational as Mouchette. She rarely speaks, but her face is like an open book. She looks authentically fragile, appropriately naïve and defenseless. The rest of the characters in the film are also played by non-professional actors, the majority of them village farmers who had to balance daily work with acting.

Bresson shot Mouchette in the South of France with acclaimed Belgian cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet (Roman Polanski's Tess, Jacques Becker's Le Trou), who also collaborated with him on the equally impressive Au hasard Balthazar.

*In 1967, Mouchette was screened at the Cannes Film Festival where it won OCIC Award (Robert Bresson), and at the Venice Film Festival where it won Pasinetti Award.

Mouchette Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Mouchette arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet that is provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. A full 4K restoration was made possible by CNC. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the optical soundtrack negative using Avid's Pro Tools and iZotope RX.

Transfer supervisor: Mylene Bresson.
Colorist: Christophe Bousquet.
Color correction facility: Eclair, Epinay-sur-Seine, France."

The release is sourced from a recent 4K master and as I expected now the film has a very solid healthy organic appearance. However, in 2014 we reviewed this Region-B release from Artificial Eye which also offered a very strong presentation of the film, so below I am going to highlight some of the discrepancies that I observed while comparing the two.

First, I must point out that there is plenty of footage that actually looks very similar, with the majority coming from indoor sequences where light is rather nicely balanced -- meaning evenly distributed, not restricted in any particular ways. However, when there is an abundance of light on this release delineation and sharpness become superior. (You should be able to see the difference if you compare screencapture #6 with the corresponding screencapture from our review of the other release). Furthermore, depth is improved, but I think that it also helps that the grading is more convincing as well. Blacks are solid and there are significantly better ranges of grays. The white and the existing ranges of white nuances are very similar, perhaps even identical. So, it is easier to have an overall improved perception of depth even in areas where the difference is actually quite small. There are no traces of problematic digital work. Image stability is excellent. There are no distracting large debris, cuts, stains, marks, warped or torn frames to report in our review. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Mouchette Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Robert Bresson's films do not have elaborate soundtracks. They welcome a wide variety of organic sounds and noises that usually produce all of the meaningful dynamic activity. In other words, you should not expect dramatic dynamic contrasts, even when there are busy mass scenes or shootouts. In Mouchette, the dynamic activity is extremely casual. Also, there isn't a lot of dialog, so the opportunities for the lossless track to impress are basically non-existent. What is important to underscore is that there are no age-related anomalies, so the lossless track simply replicates the film's original sound design.

Mouchette Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Au Hasard Bresson/Zum Beispiel Bresson - Zum Beispiel Bresson is an archival German documentary with raw footage from the shooting of Mouchette in the French countryside. Also included in it are numerous clips from on-location interviews with Robert Bresson in which he discusses his directing methods, the unique relationship between objects and emotions that is present in many of his films, framing, etc. The documentary was produced by film critic Theodor Kotulla in 1966. In French and German, with optional English subtitles. (30 min).

• Cinema: "Travelling" - "Travelling" is a segment of the French cine-magazine series Cinema which shows Robert Bresson and cast members working on Mouchette. Short clips from interviews are included as well. The segment was produced in 1967. In French, with optional English subtitles. (8 min, 1080i).

• Trailer by Jean-Luc Godard - this vintage trailer for Mouchette was prepared -- initially secretly -- by Jean-Luc Godard in 1967. Fully restored. In French, with printed English subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

• Commentary - critic Tony Rayns recorded this audio commentary for the Criterion Collection in 2006. Previously, the commentary appeared on the label's DVD release of Mouchette.

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by critic and poet Robert Polito as well as technical credits.

Mouchette Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Mouchette was the only film Robert Bresson directed, he still would have been considered one of the true giants of French cinema. It is very simple but so powerful that once seen it cannot be forgotten. On the other hand, Mouchette is actually incredibly difficult, perhaps even impossible to like, for very obvious reasons. It was the film that introduced me to Bresson many years ago, and I have to admit that since then I have revisited it only a couple of times. Criterion's Blu-ray release is sourced from a beautiful 4K restoration and offers the best technical presentation of Mouchette that I have seen to date. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.