CERT: 15 | PATFORM: BLU-RAY+DVD | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

In the decades since its release in 1966, director Tony Richardson’s arthouse study on eroticism and social ostracism Mademoiselle has continued to divide the critics. Richardson’s immersive black-and-white treatise on transgression and individualism in rural France is infused with the sensibilities of French art cinema. Jeanne Moreau stars as the titular schoolteacher, a sociopath determined to bring misfortune down on her rural community. She’s a menace: causing floods, setting fires and poisoning livestock. Her anti-social behaviour is driven by resentment and unfulfilled desire, although she later consummates a relationship with a woodcutter who she ultimately betrays.

Prior to his work on Mademoiselle, Richardson had made the social realist classics A Taste of Honey and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and the broader comedies Tom Jones and The Loved One. In complete contrast, Mademoiselle is a highly stylised, languid art-flick bursting with abstract symbolism and metaphor. Fans of the movie herald it as a beautifully shot exposition of alienation and deviancy; while many unimpressed reviewers have instead dismissed it as banal and pretentious twaddle. It’s certainly a distinctive film, lit up by an extraordinary performance by Moreau. But Richardson’s reluctance to compromise in bringing what is a very esoteric and contrived vision to the screen has always repelled as many viewers as it has impressed.

The film is well served by this latest release by the BFI. In addition to the usual photo gallery and trailer, there’s an illustrated booklet of essays, an interview with actor Keith Skinner (who played the young Bruno), and the 1982 BFI drama Doll’s Eye.  A knowledgeable and persuasive audio commentary by the film critic Adrian Martin is particularly recommended.