La Maman Et La Putain (The Mother and the Whore) - English subtitled
A rarely screened classic regarded as the last great film of the nouvelle vague, about a narcissistic idler caught up in a love triangle.
Nouvelle vague icon Jean-Pierre Léaud finds himself at the centre of the film’s titular Freudian sexual dilemma, as well as a powerful discourse on the gender politics of the sexual revolution, in Jean Eustache‘s autobiographical tale of an idle, verbose young man and his two lovers – the woman he lives with, and the one he cheats on her with. That simple story, told in minute detail, of a love triangle and the repercussions it unleashes caused a scandal when it won the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. Yet the film, a veritable time capsule of post-‘68 sexual mores and philosophies, has been deemed a masterpiece by critics the world over.
For years, it has been next to impossible to see this film at all, let alone on a decent print. Fortunately, the film has been restored and remastered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its original release.