5. Mouchette (1967)
Mouchette is an unloved, illiterate, inarticulate peasant girl whose life is full of misery and tragedy. Her father is an alcoholic and her mother is bed bound. Mouchette has to look after the baby and do all of the housework. We first see her in school - dressed in hand me downs and getting picked on by a teacher for singing out of tune. In a brief respite from her misery, Mouchette goes to the fair and goes on the dodgems. She captures the eye of a young lad but her drunken sot of a father comes along and slaps Mouchette in the face. Walking home from school one day, Mouchette gets lost in the woods in a terrible storm. She ends up in a cabin and gets raped. Mouchette's mother dies and Mouchette, fed up with the terrible cards life has dealt her, commits suicide. Your heart really bleeds for Mouchette throughout the film. This is in spite of the lack of sentimentality Bresson displays throughout the movie. Like all of his works, it is dreadfully austere - that is not a bad thing in itself because it makes his movies very lean and direct to the point. Mouchette stands for a stolen childhood, a bullied outsider, a hapless figure made miserable by events she cannot control. The only time she gets to have fun in the movies is when she is on the dodgems - and even then her father slaps her face - bringing her back to the sobering reality that is her life. We are shown a glimpse of a parallel world where Mouchette would possibly be happy. The suicide scene at the end of the movie is beautifully lit and filmed. Bresson offers up suicide as an act of transcendence and it is also cathartic to see Mouchette escaping her misery. She is giving up her life without any pain or dramatics. The act of suicide at the end is simultaneously full of redemption and solemnity. A film to break your heart.