The Mother and the Whore

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.
Details
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
Françoise Lebrun
Bernadette Lafont
Isabelle Weingarten
Jacques Renard
Pierre Cottrell
Bernard Eisenschitz
Jean Douchet
Jean Eustache