La Maman et la putain (The Mother and the Whore) (1973)

100% of critics liked it
(8 reviews)
92% of users liked it
(2,780 ratings)

One of the most important French films of the 1970s, Jean Eustache's marathon drama focuses on three twentysomething Parisians in a bizarre love triangle: Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is a seemingly unemployed narcissist involved with both a live-in girlfriend (Bernadette Lafont) and a Polish nurse… More One of the most important French films of the 1970s, Jean Eustache's marathon drama focuses on three twentysomething Parisians in a bizarre love triangle: Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is a seemingly unemployed narcissist involved with both a live-in girlfriend (Bernadette Lafont) and a Polish nurse (Françoise Lebrun) whom he picked up at a café and with whom he begins a desultory affair. Clocking in at over 3 1/2 hours, the movie focuses less on plot than on the confused and ambivalent interrelations of these three lost souls. As such, it becomes a searing document of the aftermath of Paris's social and sexual revolutions of the Sixties, particularly the uprisings of May 1968. These characters know that they are supposed to be free and liberated, but they don't quite know how to go about it, or how to make it work in practice, and their efforts don't seem to make them any happier. In the guise of a plotless style seemingly borrowed from cinéma vérité documentaries, Eustache unfolds a critique of both the illusory liberations of his social moment and the dead-end heritage of his cinematic moment. By casting Jean-Pierre Léaud, an icon of the French New Wave who first made his name as the star of François Truffaut's pioneering The 400 Blows (1959), Eustache sets out to rewrite the conventions of a French New Wave that had changed from a revolutionary film movement into a formulaic mainstream style. Despite its deceptively rambling manner, the film effortlessly intertwines its characters' psychological dilemmas with a portrait of its cultural moment with a revision of a wide swath of film history from Truffaut's Jules and Jim to Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game to Ernst Lubitsch's Design for Living. This experimental classic is not for all viewers, but it's an unforgettable, and historically indispensable, experience for those who can stick with it. ~ Leo Charney, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 3 hr. 35 min.
Directed By: Jean Eustache
Written By: Jean Eustache
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1973 Wide
On DVD: Apr 13, 1999

Critic Reviews

Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
Léaud blasts off into entirely new galaxies of rationalization and bravado, most of it debating the presumption that the "typical male's" fantasies involve either a mother or a whore.
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Comes close to capturing the pacing of life itself, where great changes happen at great length.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
The film is a most revealing study of how women look at men, especially men who think they are real smoothies.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Eric B

"The Mother and the Whore" is a black-and-white, French-language film which lasts over three and a half hours and consists of nothing but intimate, two- and three-person conversations. For most people, the above is all they need to know. Enough said -- forget it! But for… More
"The Mother and the Whore" is a black-and-white, French-language film which lasts over three and a half hours and consists of nothing but intimate, two- and three-person conversations. For most people, the above is all they need to know. Enough said -- forget it! But for more patient viewers, Jean Eustache's career-defining film may prove fascinating. Even if the scenario is hardly the stuff of epics. Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Leaud) lives with Marie (Bernadette LaFont). They love each other, but have a warily open relationship. This means she allows him to chase other women (including Gilberte, a past lover who deceptively seems like a main character at first), but not without dragging him through a testy quarrel. Marie has a dress shop, and it's implied that dandy Alexandre casually lives off her earnings. She ("the Mother") indulges him like a child, and even seems to pick out his clothes. After a final farewell to Gilberte, Alexandre yearns for consolation and quickly spots glum, black-clad Veronika (Francoise Lebrun) in a cafe. He pursues a relationship with her too. Marie gripes as the bond deepens and he spends more time away from home, but she always ends up forgiving him. Eventually, the two women accept each other and even become friends, but one watches the film wondering if it's building to some extreme jolt (perhaps like the similarly lengthy "Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles"). Obviously, this is a movie about character rather than action. Alexandre is a typical Leaud vehicle: anxious, delicate, boyishly charming and full of self-indulgent ramblings. There can't have been many film roles which include more lines for one actor. He talks and talks and talks, until his companion smiles at his sheer energy. In contrast, Veronika is more quiet and blank-faced. A chain-smoking, heavy-drinking nurse who dresses and styles her hair to minimize her beauty, she has slept with numerous men but draws no real pleasure from it. She discusses sex and her tampons in an oddly frank, nonchalant way. But in a climactic monologue which spans several minutes, she breaks down and tearfully insists that sex is meaningless unless it's for love or procreation. She does say she loves Alexandre, but it's not clear why she should. Marie is the least defined of the three. She is grounded, intelligent and responsible, and represents "home base" for Alexandre. She's rarely seen outside of the apartment they share, and many of her scenes with him have a similar arc: She vents some cutting comments about his infidelities, then abruptly brightens and exchanges a kiss or affectionate line. At one point, she says "You assh*le, you know I love you" -- this just about sums up her half of the relationship. A few other friends pop into the story (here's where the film could be edited), but the bulk of the action revolves around Alexandre, Marie, Veronika and (early on) Gilberte. And this is a post-New Wave work, so of course the dialogue is loaded with nods to other film names including F.W. Murnau, Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Carne, Robert Bresson, Fernandel, Nicholas Ray and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Meanwhile, there is no score at all, but Alexandre's beloved record player supplies diegetic music from Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf, Offenbach, Mozart and others (while enjoying the tunes, Leaud also reveals that he happens to be quite a good whistler). Director Jean Eustache committed suicide in 1981, and unfortunately completed just one full-length feature and a few shorter films after "The Mother and the Whore."
Dimitris S

A humongous effort,this 4-hour epic,unsettling,long dialogue is one of the finest pieces of post-nouvelle vague in the history of world cinema.I hate the main character.And it's ironic because it's somehow flamboyant....the way he rejects the emotional state of the women in… More
A humongous effort,this 4-hour epic,unsettling,long dialogue is one of the finest pieces of post-nouvelle vague in the history of world cinema.I hate the main character.And it's ironic because it's somehow flamboyant....the way he rejects the emotional state of the women in his life.Life as a big joke or as a wee bit of adventure simultaneously.One of cinema's most thrilling triplets.