Robert Bresson, particularly in his work from the 1960s, has a reputation for being 'difficult'. Perhaps it's the austere black-and-white photography, the slow pace or the way heíll focus on a pair of feet instead of a face to read a significant reaction. Mostly it's because he suggests that death offers the only escape from life's agonies.
Here he focuses on the miserable existence of a teenage peasant girl, capturing moods rather than relating plot. Mouchette (much like donkey tale Au Hasard Balthazar, also released) is certainly sombre, but when the characters are finally released from suffering, they do achieve spiritual purity.