Mouchette's skirts are always torn.

Mouchette by Georges Bernanos

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mouchette by Georges Bernanos is by all accounts a tragedy. Every character in the novel is flawed and broken - even the police officer and church attendant.

As a side note, I attempted to watch the 1967 film directed by Robert Bresson. I say attempted because the film had very little in common with the book. If a film does not follow the book, I at least try to judge the film on its own merit. Bresson's Mouchette garners a 7.7 rating on IMDB from 13,000 reviewers, so I would be in the minority if I said that I did not like the film. I think it is likely that most of these reviews have not read the book, and for me personally, the heavy deviation from the book ruined my enjoyment of the film. It wasn't a bad film viewed through its own lens, but in the context of the novel, the film failed Georges Bernanos.

A girl with dead hands.
A girl with the eyes of a wild cat.
A girl with perpetually torn skirts.
A girl who did nothing wrong.