I interpret the ending to be Mouchette's way of facing her struggle to live. After the first time she rolls down the hill (the rolling motion representing her struggle), she turns to face a farmer on a tractor. I thought of this as her way to look for help through God or mankind. Since the farmer is moving away from her, she continues to struggle further with life. The girl then lands on top of a bunch of plants. This symbolizes her reliance on nature. Finally, we see her struggle one last time until she meets her inevitable fate.
I only looked at it on the basic level, after enduring everything she had she found release in death. Your possible allegorical interpretations make sense, but I never really looked for them. I will keep your post in mind whenever I revisit this film.
Mouchette and Au Hasard Balthazar are often lumped together, I think you could also put The Trial of Joan of Arc with them as well.(as they are all films about obstinate adolescent women) His other film from the sixties A Gentle Woman also treads similar water, except that the girls corpse is on explicit display throughout that film. Joan's body is nowhere to be found after her execution, and Balthazar's Marie simply vanishes without any explicit explanation. When I first saw Mouchette the physical impossibility of the climax eluded me for quite some time, but I knew I saw something sacred and then BLAM!!! it hit me...a burial shroud and NO BODY....where have we heard that before. Those three films in order seem to represent the trial, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. Joan is judged, Marie and Balthazar are the condemned and Mouchette is the Holy Ghost. That may be a little bit of a stretch but It's the only way the ending makes any sense to me, as I don't think Bresson was interested in just doing away with Mouchette.
a burial shroud and NO BODY....where have we heard that before. Those three films in order seem to represent the trial, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. Joan is judged, Marie and Balthazar are the condemned and Mouchette is the Holy Ghost
An interesting observation especially the burial shroud with no corpse.
Yeah some very good points on the details of the farmer. And I think the scene right before is to show you the resemblance. The rabbit is fighting to live on one foot as it struggles and struggles until it finally dies out. Before that it was running around getting shot by different hunters. Throughout the film, Mouchette takes a lot of crap from a lot of different people. Just like the rabbit taking a lot of shots from different hunters. That can be life for some people. Mouchette rolls and rolls until she finally falls into the water and kills herself. Similar to how the rabbit fights and struggles until he finally dies out. Sad but excellent is definitely the right way to put it.