“A non-film, non-filmed by a non-filmmaker and played by a non-actor”: this film decried and prohibited for those under 18 returns to the cinema.
The Mom and the whore returns to the cinema this Wednesday, June 7. Preceded by a sulphurous reputation, this film by Jean Eustache had already emerged successfully a year ago, and returns as part of a retrospective devoted to its director. This (very) feature film originally released in 1973, with a ban for those under 18, has a restored 4K version.
Long gone The Mother and the Whore had become the real object of a cult, so rare was it. On the occasion of this theatrical release, here is what you need to know about this phenomenal work.
Where does the scandal begin?
Why was the film immediately surrounded by a scent of scandal? The first reason is very simple: its synopsis, and the themes tackled through this film of an extraordinary duration (3h40).
The story is as follows: Alexandre, a young idler, lives with (and to the detriment of) Marie, a shopkeeper significantly older than him. He still loves Gilberte, a student who refuses the marriage proposal he makes to her in the form of expiation. As she leaves a terrace, he accosts Veronika, an intern at Laennec. “I let myself be approached easily, as you have seen (…) I can sleep with anyone, it doesn’t matter. Marie agrees, albeit with difficulty, to share her man with her.
In view of 2023, we can be surprised at a ban for those under 18. But for the time, 50 years ago therefore, although May 68 had been there, this synopsis, its dialogues considered raw (the word “kiss” is used many times) and especially the underlying themes disturb. The film is about free love and the love triangle. It is also about abortion, the intimacy of women and their contraception, the representation of which is taboo, which makes some spectators wince. Some even consider this film as… pornographic.
Note that even before the film was shot, its genesis had been complex. Complicated genesis but which at the same time nourished the work and made it become what it has become.
In the press kit accompanying the film’s release last year, Les Films du Losange, its distributor, sheds light on the comments of its director on this subject: “Before shooting this film, I was in a difficult period. Everyone liked my films. I had very good reviews, and none of my films were in deficit. But nobody wanted to give me money to produce a new one.
The only ones who had given me money, so far, were Godard, at the end of filming, and the ORTF, after many discussions, because they were documentaries, so apparently without problems. This contradictory situation infuriated me.
And it was this rage that allowed me to write the dialogues for La Maman et la Putain. Dialogues, or rather monologues without cutting, which piled up each day to form the base of a colossal film of five or six hours. (…) To give an idea of the need for provocation which was mine, I point out that the original title was Du pain et des Rolls.“
A CANNES FESTIVAL PLACED UNDER THE SIGN OF PROVOCATION FOR FRENCH FILMS
Detonator of the scandal, the Cannes Film Festival of 1973! During its presentation, the film does not take long to arouse controversy. Some of the critics did not spare him, starting with Gilles Jacob, film critic at the time, before occupying the position of General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival for many years.
Gilles Jacob does not beat around the bush, knocking out the film, facing its director Jean Eustache, speaking of a “no movie” by a “not filmmaker“, with a “
non-actor“. He even uses the word “crappy“ thus taking up a term heard precisely in the offending film.
Despite this icy reception, La Maman et la putain won two prizes, including the Special Grand Jury Prize. It should be noted, however, that Ingrid Bergman, president of the jury that year, opposed this choice, finding the film “despicable”.
She even declared in the press that she “finds it regrettable that France saw fit to be represented by these two films, the most sordid and vulgar of the Festival“. The other Cannes film targeted is La Grande Bouffe by Marco Ferreri, a feature film with which La Maman et la putain shares the Fipresci prize.
The Mom and the whore also caused ink to flow following two tragic deaths. The film’s costume designer, Catherine Garnier, commits suicide before the film is even released. The story goes that she left this note: “The film is sublime, leave it as it is“. Jean Eustache committed suicide in 1981, at the age of 42, less than 10 years after the release of the film.
A rare film, which has become almost invisible
Like any work surrounded by a certain myth, La Maman et la putain is one of those films that many know but… without having seen it!
The work will attract no less than 300,000 spectators for its release in 1973 (and 30,000 more last year for the re-release). But the film will remain prohibited to those under 18 until 1981. And it was only in 1986 that it will know its first TV broadcast, the extraordinary length of the film not facilitating a general public programming.
His TV broadcasts can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Before a broadcast in May 2023, the last one dates back almost 10 years on the occasion of a tribute paid by the Arte channel on the death of Bernadette Laffont. The film does not exist either on DVD to date (this should soon be fixed).
Only a few screenings in film libraries in France or abroad have taken place. Otherwise, pirated copies have been circulating for some time.
Before the distribution company Les Films du Losange took over the restoration and safeguarding of this film, La Maman et la putain could have disappeared. A rather complex blocking of the rights of the film indeed prevented a restoration and a new exploitation of the film.
A comeback
It is a completely restored version and even embellished with a deleted scene which is offered to the public for this re-release. As the distributor states, “this re-release of La Maman et la Putain is only the first and most emblematic step in a long process of restoring all of his work. It will also be accompanied by DVD / Blu-ray releases and unpublished critical work..”
PODCAST – Why are movies so long?
The Mom and the whore of Jean Eustache comes out this Wednesday, June 7, 2023.