The Mother and the Whore

The Mother and the Whore is a 1973 French film directed by Jean Eustache and starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Bernadette Lafont and Françoise Lebrun. An examination of the relationships between three characters in a love triangle, it was Eustache's first feature film and is considered his masterpiece. Eustache wrote the screenplay drawing inspiration from his own relationships, and shot the film from May to July 1972. The film screened at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. With some divided initial critical reaction, it has been championed by later critics and filmmakers. Plot Alexandre is an unemployed young intellectual, perhaps a journalist, living a rudderless life in Paris. Subtly but totally self-absorbed, Alexandre spends most of his days lecturing his companions about political and philosophical topics, among them his opinions on contemporary films, such as The Working Class Goes to Heaven, and his memories of the Mai 68 protests. He lives with his lover Marie, who works at a dress store and responds to his continuous apathy for her with angry invective that masks her strong feelings for him. When Alexandre attempts to persuade an ex-girlfriend, Gilberte, to marry him, Gilberte opts instead to marry another man. Alexandre makes his way to the popular Les Deux Magots café and gets the number of a woman leaving. The two eventually go on a date. Her name is Veronika, a Polish French anesthesia nurse who lives at Necker Hospital. Priding herself on her promiscuity and her status as a liberated woman, Veronika makes advances on Alexandre, eventually seducing him. Marie immediately sees through Alexandre's clumsy attempts to hide his affair, treating him with a gradually increasing fury that only abates when they themselves have sex. When Marie goes on a business trip to London, Alexandre first beds Veronika in his apartment, then sleeps with another friend of his who had earlier expressed the desire to cheat on her husband. After each tryst, Alexandre lectures the women on various topics, while playing classical and pop music on his record player.