A soul-scouring sojourn to the French countryside, which is apparently not as idyllic as those Expedia ads would have you believe.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 29, 2025

Some have described the ending as "spiritual," others as "tragic." For me, it came as a relief. Up until that point, Nortier, a one-shot actress, made me feel every bump, bruise, slight, and slander.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 30, 2025

One of our great humanist directors with one of the most recognizable styles.

Full Review | Mar 2, 2023

Disturbing and heart-rending.

Full Review | Aug 12, 2022

Robert Bresson followed 1966's Au hasard Balthazar with another film equally as unlikely to top anyone's list of "feel-good" movies.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 28, 2020

The film has apparently melted down to a short story, being adapted from a Bernanos novel, but it moves on about five levels.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2019

Like Au Hasard, Balthazar, Mouchette is a deeply pessimistic film which somehow leaves one in a mood close to exhilaration.

Full Review | Apr 7, 2015

A documentary fidelity underpins Robert Bresson's rigorous, though accessible, adaptation of Georges Bernanos's novel.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 3, 2014

A work steeped in a profound sense of unfathomability, it's a perfect introduction to Bresson's utterly distinctive cinematic universe.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2013

Mouchette is certainly sombre, but when the characters are finally released from suffering, they do achieve spiritual purity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2013

The exquisite balance of unadorned artistry and emotional intensity that defined Au Hasard Balthazar is less skillfully balanced here.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 29, 2012

In "The Tree of Life," Jessica Chastain's character notes that one can go through life in one of two ways - with grace or by nature. If the doomed cleric in "Diary of a Country Priest" was the exemplar of grace, Mouchette represents nature...

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jan 6, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jan 6, 2012

Everyday incidents take on an almost spiritual intensity in Bresson's controlled and incisive direction and handling of the players. Nadine Nortier has the animal ferocity and gentleness needed for the role.

Full Review | Mar 26, 2009

Highly acclaimed (with awards from both Cannes and Venice in 1967), Bresson's adaptation of the 1937 Bernanos novel is a sombre study in alienation and quiet despair

Full Review | May 30, 2008

At the center of it all is lovely little Nortier, an untrained actress who never made another film, wearing her odd pigtails and giving a heartbreakingly wounded performance.

Full Review | Mar 9, 2007

In its brevity and phantasmagoric intensity, Georges Bernanos' Mouchette resembles a fairy tale. Robert Bresson's film adaptation of the novella is something else entirely.

Full Review | Jan 22, 2007

To this day, this devastating portrait of an ostracized young girl's bleak emancipation from the society of predators that surrounds her remains one of the most exciting and continually rewarding films I've ever seen.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2007

This 81-minute ode is as good an introduction as any to the French director's work. In our MTV age, Bresson's films stand as a stark reminder of cinema's ascetic aesthetic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 3, 2007

This cruel and unrelenting film is strengthened by a powerful score.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 28, 2006