Godard's Trailer and Polito's Essay
Mouchette's original theatrical trailer is on the DVD, and it was created by none other than Jean-Luc Godard, who chose to use a playful tone. The trailer proclaims in big block letters it is "a film Christian and sadistic."
Packaged with the DVD is an eight-page booklet that contains a four-page article on the movie by poet and essayist Robert Polito, who attempts to convey the film's paradoxes. He writes, "The marvel of Mouchette inheres in the elegance, obstinacy and capaciousness of Bresson's double-mindedness. A rape edges into tenderness, suicide emerges as at once holy and appalling, and scene upon scene invokes, simultaneously, spiritual despair and an afterlife."
A Worthwhile Audio Commentary by Tony Rayns
The DVD provides an informative feature-length English-language audio commentary by film scholar, critic and festival programmer Tony Rayns. The movie is an adaptation of a 1937 novel by Georges Bernanos, and Rayns points out some of the differences between the film and the book. He also talks about Bresson's strategies, including his visual rhymes.
Rayns declares himself to be an atheist and acknowledges that he may not see things the same as Bresson. The commentator says that to his eye, the film has "kind of a happy ending." This position is defensible, but a naïve reading of the movie is that it is a tragedy.
DVD Details
Below I've listed the details for the Criterion Collection DVD containing Mouchette.
Release Date: January 16, 2007
Widescreen (1.66:1), Black-and-White
Feature Film Run Time: 1 Hour 21 Minutes
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
French Monaural
English Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Film Scholar and Critic Tony Rayns
Behind-the-Scenes With Bresson Making Movie (31 min.)
Segment on Movie From French TV Program (7 1/2 min.)
Theatrical Trailer, Cut by Jean-Luc Godard
8-Page Booklet Containing Essay by Robert Polito
Return to Beginning of Review
