Mouchette

Released in Paris in 1967, this film was Bresson's second adaptation of a novel by Georges Bernanos (the first being DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST). It is a dark story about the last day in the life of a 14-year-old girl, Nortier. She lives a depressing life with her father, an alcoholic bootlegger, and her dying mother. Having no friends at all, one day she meets a drunken poacher, who takes her back to his cabin and rapes her. She tries to tell her mother, but the sickly woman dies before she can. Growing increasingly hostile toward the world and the people in it, she decides to drown herself. This cruel and unrelenting film is strengthened by a powerful score, featu...