"Mouchette rolls down the hill,and the water closes around her as if around nothing.It's the same sleight- of- hand-which is what death is- that I wanted to make palpable in the Trial of Joan of Arc,with the pyre and the suddenly empty chains.what is the signifiance of Monteverdi's Magnificat?The music isn't about sustenance or reinforcement; it precedes and it concludes.It envelops the film in Christianity.It was necessary."