IMDb > La maman et la putain (1973)

La maman et la putain (1973) More at IMDbPro »


Overview

User Rating:
8.2/10   1,130 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 13% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer:
Jean Eustache (scenario and dialogue)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Mother and the Whore on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
6 July 1973 (West Germany) more
Genre:
Awards:
3 wins & 1 nomination more
User Comments:
one of the greatest films ever made more (29 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)
Bernadette Lafont ... Marie
Jean-Pierre Léaud ... Alexandre
Françoise Lebrun ... Veronika
Isabelle Weingarten ... Gilberte
Jacques Renard ... Alexandre's Friend
Jean-Noël Picq ... Offenbach's Fan
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
The Mother and the Whore (USA)
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Runtime:
Argentina:217 min | Japan:217 min | UK:215 min | USA:210 min | France:217 min
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Company:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
This film is based on the real-life relationship between director Jean Eustache and actress Francoise Lebrun (who plays Veronika). more
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. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Les passagers (1999) more
Soundtrack:
Falling in Love Again more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful.
one of the greatest films ever made, 20 September 2003
10/10
Author: (brantank@hotmail.com) from Wellington, New Zealand

It is not an easy film to watch - it is over three and a half hours long and it is composed entirely of conversations. Yet it is so incredibly compelling and ruthlessly observational of the human character, that it is, in my humble opinion, one of the very greatest films of all time.

The film is depressing, cynical and cruel. (If you want something uplifting, see Jacques Rivette's fantastic Céline and Julie Go Boating, which was made around the same time). It shows the idealism of the late 1960s to be nothing different from the society that it was trying to change.

It involves a supposedly liberated ménage-à-trois between Alexandre (played by Jean-Pierre Leaud), Marie (Bernadette Lafont) and Veronika (Francoise Lebrun). Yet Alexandre is shown to be as chauvinistic and jealous as any other man. The women are exposed as being willingly subservient and defining their femininity through the male gaze.

The film is an extremely icy end to the highly revolutionary French New Wave. This movement was one of the most significant movements in film history and had a profound effect on cinema as we know it. Jean-Pierre Leaud was one of the key actors of the New Wave, having starred (among other films) in the influential Les Quatres Cent Coups (1959) by Francois Truffaut as a rebellious teenager. Director Jean Eustache is not as well known as other directors from the New Wave, but he should be.

There is no improvisation (unlike in John Cassavetes's similar films made in the US) and the dialogue comes from real-life conversations. The film is resonant with Eustache's personal experiences. For example, Francoise Lebrun was a former lover of Eustache. Eustache himself committed suicide in 1981 and the real-life person that the character Marie was based on, did too. The anger and bitterness all culminate in a harrowing monologue by Veronika delivered directly to the audience, breaking down the coldly objective nature of the rest of the film. This mesmerising, personal, and honest filmic statement remains one of the most revealing films of human nature around.

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Message Boards

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DVD release in America - any news? corwin215
A MASTERPIECE!!! Hishoo
Script for end monologue neosigma13
La Maman at Cannes cchristophe
It's such a shame... corwin215
The Cafe? jean_pierre_doinel
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