A low monologue leads to the opening of the girl's suffering. The water of Lian Lian Pond flows over the scarred soul, separating the peaceful other shore and the suffocating turbid world.
In the post-war France of the 1960s, staggering in the mud of poverty and degradation, the revolution was still in its infancy, and the new social landscape was just an idea. When desolation, confusion, and helplessness become the main theme resounding through the times, individual notes collide towards stagnation. For example, Mushayt, who lives in the countryside, wanders in a world woven by lies and bullying, and is born like a mayfly. Only when the candle burns out can he show a moment of dazzling light.
A person's tragedy is often written by multiple others. From the school to the bar, from the small town to the deep forest, this girl with a bleak background met several faces. Their sharp or hypocritical eyes uprooted the light and dreamy dreams that the pastoral nurtured. From the physical description of the withered to the spiritual emptiness that has nothing to rely on, it has created the ruins of life at the bottom. People have to rely on the primal cravings dormant in the body, temporarily forgetting the exhausting situations in front of them, such as alcohol, such as sex.
The constantly shifting eyes in the film actually glimpse the psychological process of her collapse through the indifferent crowd around the protagonist. Because of an angry and gloomy adult world, the disappearance and end of childhood always become logical and irreversible. The mother on the sickbed, the alcoholic father and brother, the hostile teachers and students, the stubborn street boy... The world is in the ever-spreading black and white, draining the fresh colors of growth, making her a wild cat soaked in rain, Walking alone in purgatory without light and heat.
In the original works of author George Bernanos, a large number of psychological descriptions have become an important emotional foreshadowing. And through Bresson's adaptation, all the obvious signs have been eliminated, only the external loose scenes and shots have become potential metaphors for projected reality. The death of the young girl Mushayt is both like the product of a brewing social storm and a closed circular argument for religion. Condensed like Bresson, he always implants a fierce conflict between the mundane and ideological in the minimalist audio-visual language. The narrative is erratic and indifferent, with unexpected accusations and whiplashes.
The film's paradoxical assumption is that in the face of violence, no one is truly weak. The long-term pain perception made Mushaet connect with the villagers who bullied her and became part of a violent group. The unruly resistance behavior such as throwing mud directly denied her submissiveness, magnifying the mark left by the bullying on the girl and her suppressed and distorted character. At the same time, the exposed behavior and the hidden emotions also hinted at the final destination of this struggle: even if she struggled hard, she still could not change the fate of being trampled on by others.
In the film Diary of a Country Priest, also adapted from Bernanos's original work, Bresson used a diary to depict the priest's lonely state of mind, expressing it delicately and profoundly. The restrained use of voice and dialogue also makes "Muchette" full of a confused temperament, and even a few scenes of the protagonist crying have not achieved the effect of tears. It was this silent cry that gave people a stronger shock, like the echo of leather shoes stepping on the floor, reflecting the girl's forbearance of the riddled heart beneath her exterior.
There is no shortage of bright spots in the dark narrative, such as Mushaet playing bumper cars, with a rare smile on his face, only to be slapped a few seconds later. It is reminiscent of Antoine in "Four Hundred Blows", after walking out of the swirling playground, witnessing his mother cheating on the street, and the carefree child's carefree disappears into the complex adult kingdom in a blink of an eye.
Another short-lived happiness was the encounter between Yu Ye and the hunter. The two humble fate lines are intertwined, the fire of trust gives her warmth, and the beauty is always interrupted abruptly. The scenes of the hunt at the beginning and end say it all, surrounded by gunfire on all sides, she has nowhere to hide, but becomes a panicked bird and a wounded rabbit.
Bresson's humanistic concern in this work is not so much due to the gap in gender, class, family and other aspects, but rather the strength of emotional catharsis, connecting a number of seemingly irrelevant trivial paragraphs, quietly interpreting the theme. Light and heavy. As Proust said in "Reminiscence of Homecoming", life is just a series of isolated moments, through memories and fantasies, many meanings emerge, then disappear, and then emerge again.
What kind of person is Mushait, the answer is not clear, and it is not that important. Regardless of the jealous behavior of the men or the disputes between the ranger and the hunter, the reality never gave her the opportunity to judge right and wrong and express herself. Let her be carried by a strange wave, stay away from the enemy, stay away from this mediocre world, In an undisturbed corner, complete its true revenge.
Like a fish leaving the shore, she fell into the water with an accumulating sense of ritual, creating layers of ripples. At this moment, Monteverdi's hymn sounded, showing signs of compassion in the solemnity. It may be a kind of liberation, a return, a washing of original sin, but in the final analysis, it is just a message to this pale world. A cold sneer.
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