Saturday, September 23 10am
Monday, September 25 7pm
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. (Time Out)
1973 Jean Eustache B&W 1.37:1 219 min. In French with subtitles.
