Maman et la putain, La (1973)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Jean Eustache

Writer:

Jean Eustache (scenario and dialogue)

Release Date:

6 July 1973 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Prostitute | Living Together | Anesthetist | Record Player | Reading

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Bernadette Lafont	...	Marie
Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Alexandre
Françoise Lebrun	...	Veronika
Isabelle Weingarten	...	Gilberte
Jacques Renard	...	Alexandre's Friend
Jean-Noël Picq	...	Offenbach lover
Jessa Darrieux
Geneviève Mnich
Marinka Matuszewski

Also Known As:

The Mother and the Whore (USA)

Runtime:

Argentina:218 min | Japan:220 min | UK:215 min | USA:210 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris 6, Paris, France

Company:

Elite Films

Trivia:

This film is based on the real-life relationship between director Jean Eustache and actress Francoise Lebrun (who plays Veronika).

Goofs:

Continuity: While reading the book of Gestapo at his friend's home, Alexandre is holding a cigarette in his right hand in the close-up. In the next shot he is only holding the book.

Movie Connections:

References Quatre nuits d'un rêveur (1971)

The reason major studios frown on "director's cuts"...

... is because of films like this.

Don't get me wrong. I like independent cinema, and particularly like good foreign films, but this film could have been cut by at least an hour.

I'll explain.

The film revolves around a self centered young man who professes he loves certain women, but is really looking for someone to love him. Enter a woman who doesn't love herself, but finds this same young man, taps his energy, and both wind up "flowering" for it.

This movie revolves around the sexual morays and politics of a small group of Parisians. The film starts out very strong. Actors present characters in an extended first act that we would like to get to know, but, unfortunately this pic becomes the poster boy for the proverbial "long boring French film" replete with characters who light up cigarettes and talk in either cafés or materially spartan rented rooms about how life should be different, and what it all means. Toss in an Oedipal complex/undercurrent, and you have the quintessential French avante-garde flick.

Huh.

Inspite of this there's some good material in this film, but director Jean Eustache (probably to make up for lack of scheduling and some technical aspects) throws a lot of dialog at the audience that would've have been better served with some visual cues.

All in all it shows how messed up an certain sect of French culture really is, and, perhaps ironically, drives home a realist message regarding the act of coupling.

Technically it's bare bones. Lots of natural lighting is fused with high contrast B&W cinematography, and to add to the rugged feel of the film the scratch track is used. Little to no looping of dialog. You can hear what pros call "room tone" as it was actually recorded during filming.

I could go off the deep end and call this film self-indulgent, pretentious et al, but will say instead that the exposition given to the story was "over-exposed" (for lack of a better term). The symbolism is fine, but a lack of visuals and a borderline in-you-face delivery of certain dialog, hampers what could have been a much better film. By that I don't mean commercially successful nor accessible, but a film that could have delivered the same gists, character and message without the flaunting its strive for artistic excellence.