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  • Film

The Mother and the Whore

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Time Out says

Three-and-a-half hours of people talking about sex sounds like a recipe for boredom; in Eustache's hands, it is anything but. There is no 'explicitness': the film is about attitudes to, and defences against, sex and the body. Using dialogue garnered entirely from real-life conversations and sticking entirely to a prepared script (no improvisation), Eustache has provided us with a ruthlessly sharp-eyed view of chic, supposedly liberated sexual relationships, revealing them to be no less a disaster area of tragic dimensions than their 'straighter' counterparts. Veronika (Lebrun) cripples herself by regarding herself entirely through male eyes; Alexandre (Léaud, playing a character eerily close to his standard screen persona) is revealed to be the victim of a greedy, self-regarding, and desperate chauvinism; Marie (the superb, strong Lafont) is a less fully delineated character, sadly allowed only two fierce rejoinders to Alexandre's blind demands. Each of the three holds part of the 'truth' about their situation; none can put the pieces together. The Mother and the Whore is an icy comment on the New Wave, informed throughout by Eustache's striking visual intelligence.

Release Details

  • Duration:219 mins

Cast and crew

  • Director:Jean Eustache
  • Screenwriter:Jean Eustache
  • Cast:
    • Jean-Pierre Léaud
    • Françoise Lebrun
    • Bernadette Lafont
    • Isabelle Weingarten
    • Jacques Renard
    • Pierre Cottrell
    • Bernard Eisenschitz
    • Jean Douchet
    • Jean Eustache
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