Mouchette ***** (1967, Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal, Paul Hébert, Jean Vimenet, Marie Susini) – Classic Movie Review 4373

Writer-director Robert Bresson’s touching and personal 1967 film is the companion piece to his 1966 film Au Hasard Balthazar.

Nadine Nortier stars as the alienated French rural teenager Mouchette, who meets poacher Arsène (Jean-Claude Guilbert), who thinks he has killed a cop, and gets her to be his alibi.

Hugely sympathetic, beautiful and emotionally true, it is one of esteemed director Bresson’s great classics. Bresson’s screenplay is based on the novel by Georges Bernanos (also author of Under Satan’s Sun).

Also in the cast are Marie Cardinal, Paul Hébert (as Mouchette’s mother and father), Jean Vimenet, Marie Susini, Raymonde Chabrun and Suzanne Huguenin.

Again it is outstandingly shot in black and white of course by cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet.

It won one prize at the Venice Film Festival and two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967  but failed to secure the Palme d’Or.

Typically for this director, it is again acted out by a cast of non-professionals. Jean-Claude Guilbert worked as a mason before being discovered by Bresson, who cast him in Au Hasard Balthazar and this film.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4373

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Jean-Claude Guilbert plays Arsene.