Mouchette

The films of Robert Bresson seem to vascillate between the poignantly hopeful and bleakly despairing -- this is one of the latter. More like an early film by Ingmar Bergman than what I have come to expect from Bresson. Mouchette is a lonely 14 year old girl, neither saint nor devil -- all too human and longing for love and acceptance. Her father is an abusive alcoholic and her mother is dying, she has no friends at school (though that could be because she has a tendancy to throw mud at the other children, but then again, she probably throws mud because she has no friends etc.). Brief rays of hope are quickly squashed by despair, and it doesn't end on a happy note. It's both painful and beautiful, but mostly painful. The opening scene and a scene in which birds get caught in a hunters trap provide wonderful visual metaphors.