“Maddening and brilliant, confessional and slyly evasive, insistently perverse and blissfully naive.” - Dave Kehr, New York Daily News
“Stands the test of time magnificently.” - Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Opens July 7 (select showtimes only) | After the French New Wave and the sexual revolution came THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE, the legendary, autobiographical magnum opus by Eustache that captured a disillusioned generation navigating the post-idealism 1970s within the microcosm of a ménage à trois. The aimless, clueless, Parisian pseudo-intellectual Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud) lives with his tempestuous older girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), and begins a dalliance with the younger, sexually liberated Veronika (Françoise Lebrun, Eustache’s own former lover), leading to a volatile open relationship marked by everyday emotional violence and subtle but catastrophic shifts in power dynamics. Transmitting his own sex life to the screen with a startling immediacy, Eustache achieves an intimacy so deep it cuts. Restored and remastered in 4K in 2022 by Les Films du Losange with the support of CNC and the participation of Cinémathèque Suisse and of Chanel. Image restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata/Éclair Classics, supervised by Jacques Besse and Boris Eustache. Sound restoration by Léon Rousseau-L.E. Diapason. (Janus Films)
Awards & Nominations
Winner - Grand Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival 1973
Winner - FIPRESCI Prize (tied), Cannes Film Festival 1973
Nominee - Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival 1973
The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache: The Film Center is proud to present a 12-film retrospective of Jean Eustache (1938-1981), a key figure in the evolution of the French New Wave movement. Eustache's authentic, passionate, and personal films both capture and broaden the spirit of “La Nouvelle Vague.” View full series.