Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. This evening: a river film of 3h40, directed by Jean Eustache.
Cannes Film Festival 1973. Director Jean Eustache presents his tenth film, La Maman et la Putain, directly inspired by his own life and his love for three different women.
A feature film with an extraordinary duration (3h40), carried by Jean-Pierre Léaud, Bernadette Lafont and Françoise Lebrun, addressing among other things the then taboo themes of free love, the love triangle, but also abortion. and female contraception.
It does not take more to trigger a controversy. Some of the critics are offended, Gilles Jacob in the lead. The latter does not hesitate to knock out the film in front of Jean Eustache, even using the word “crappy”.
Despite this icy reception, The Mom and the Whore wins 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”.
When it hits theaters, The Mom and the Whore banned for those under 18. Although May 68 has been there, the synopsis, the dialogues considered raw (the word “kiss” is pronounced many times) and especially the underlying themes are disturbing. Some even consider the film as… pornographic.
Emblematic of its time – like Masculin Féminin by Jean-Luc Godard in his time -, The Mom and the Whore gradually became cult, considered by many critics to be a masterpiece of French cinema.
With an average viewer rating of 4.1/5, The Mom and the Whore is the feature film best rated by AlloCiné internet users among Jean Eustache’s filmography.
The Mom and the Whore by Jean Eustache with Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun…
Tonight on France 4 at 9 p.m.