The Mother and the Whore

The Mother and the Whore

1973
Romance, Drama
3h 30m
It focuses on three twentysomething Parisians in a bizarre love triangle: Alexandre is a seemingly unemployed narcissist involved with both a live-in girlfriend and a Polish nurse whom he picked up at a café and with whom he begins a desultory affair.
Your probable score
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The Mother and the Whore

1973
Romance, Drama
3h 30m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 75.01% from 412 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(411)
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Rated 24 Sep 2014
97
97th
Basically Masculin/Feminin with a glandular problem, or perhaps even closer to Rohmer minus his Catholic compassion, but either way essentially a very long-winded yet ultimately necessary and rewarding way of telling a certain type of proudly liberal straight white guy (i.e. me, i painfully have to confess) 'you have shitty relationships with women'. Joe Swanberg should probably just stop making movies because he will never, ever be able to accomplish even half of what this does in 3 1/2 hours.
Rated 06 Jul 2010
70
75th
Very New Wave; self-aware, youth, modern relationships, film references galore, recalls the conversation-heavy Rohmer most of all. Even the sex scenes are all talk. The Mother and the Whore nevertheless made a splash thanks to some dirty dialogue and full nudity (or was it that unruly jab at Sartre). Vapid Alexandre and slutty but insipid nurse Veronika inexplicably fall in love despite their utter charmlessness and awful acting. Miraculously, the film does generate interest for 3¾ hours.
Rated 22 Jul 2008
89
92nd
I certainly wouldn't call this the best French New Wave film, but it's got all the elements of the movement. The human element, sense of fun, and the political and social commentary, as well as overindulgent quoting and references, and a style that takes getting used to. Most of the time I was very involved with the characters and surprisingly moved by their ridiculous drama, but there are moments that go on too long and the whole film seems to go in circles, though I'd say that's intentional.
Rated 01 Aug 2023
7
99th
Took the corpse of the French New Wave and dunked on it like Shaq on Dudley. All these “revolutionary” thoughts and ideas and for what? So you can weasel your way into peoples lives (and beds)? The emptiness of post hippie/68 civil unrest. This freedom that you think you have leading to more alienation and loneliness. One of the most devastating final 30 minutes of a film. One that spends about 10 minutes of it on a beautiful close up of Lebrun‘s face while her life is being turned to shit.
Rated 12 Mar 2012
90
96th
The style of this movie is fascinating, it shows a bunch of lost characters in an impeccable background for the story (Paris). It's a sad movie and you end up feeling alone.
Rated 09 Sep 2011
93
80th
Absolutely punishing. It deserves a higher rating probably.
Rated 25 Feb 2011
100
95th
Talky, witty, provocative example of French New Wave, which Eustache shot in his own apartment and local bistros.
Rated 25 Aug 2017
76
47th
Less a study of men and women and more a study of men and women studying each other. As a postmodern comedy-of-errors obsessed with fractured romances and strained connections, the film reassesses the mythology of the New Wave (and stars no less than the face of the movement) by putting the callous men and fickle women who populated the worlds of Godard, Truffaut, and Rohmer under the microscope. At 3+ hours, much of the film drags, but certain scenes, like Veronika's monologue, make up for it.
Rated 11 Nov 2015
50
67th
I can say a maximum of nonsense in a minimum of time
Rated 11 Mar 2016
100
98th
Viewed March 10, 2016. An absolute masterpiece that might very well be the climax of the French New Wave, but it still feels wholly separate from its forebears. For the majority of its running time, this movie really is just a hell of a lot of fun. Well, only until the soul-crushing final scenes, which dig deep within the tenuous nature of human connection, and ultimately come up empty. It's remarkably insightful and audacious, an unassuming marvel, overwhelmed with truth.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
57
14th
The dialogue consists mostly of Leaud's wannabe-deep observations, and his lover's telling him -- over and over again -- how much she's been fucked. Boy, does she fuck, and she can't wait to tell you about it. With the subpar acting, excessive dialogue, and the failure to use the medium of film to any sort of advantage, this would have been better suited as a short story... which could be digested just as completely in a quarter of the time.
Rated 17 Mar 2020
92
81st
A real seducer knowing the difference between bullshitting and pretending (which is rare today and makes him an attractive total asshole), a woman able to see her desire and stay away from resentment even in frustration (also rare now), and a woman withdrawing into "freedom" and "equality" for her unsolvable discontent (a tendency of proletarinisation that has gone much further since then). Can't find in today's cinema such characters with real sexuality and interesting self-revelation anymore.
Rated 22 Jun 2020
74
90th
no exit vibes. i can feel them as ghosts drinking and writhing forwards and backwards in time forever
Rated 01 Mar 2008
92
87th
# 156
Rated 29 Jun 2014
90
59th
The narration o Paris back then and events of 1968 are well directed. Good acting.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
82
93rd
Score based on distant memory.
Rated 30 Nov 2011
91
82nd
#184
Rated 19 Dec 2008
91
82nd
172
Rated 13 Jan 2010
91
82nd
176
Rated 25 Feb 2011
0
8th
A very, very, very long movie populated by dull and obnoxious characters. I kept hoping that the protagonist would get hit by a truck. At one point he tells the Polish nurse, "I feel like I am boring you." I wanted to exclaim, "YEAH!!!"
Rated 10 Aug 2018
30
0th
A shit.
Rated 16 Sep 2018
65
32nd
endless monologues about life, relationships, society, and every other topics you can imagine. eustache's visionary modern concept can be considered a milestone for contemporary independent cinema. however, it's still inadequate due to the lack of use of potentials of cinema. dummy acting and some forced aphorisms were distracting. maybe kind of dialogue style would be better, but instead of this, we were obligated to listen a protagonist who starts talking our heads off as soon as he wakes up.
Rated 30 Mar 2020
74
50th
Verbose!
Rated 08 Apr 2021
77
52nd
Both grating and charming, the film hits an authentic revelation when "The Whore" confesses to intellectual certainty despite her own sobbing, unable to acknowledge self-loathing and hopeless confusion. The fact that this monologue is preceded by recurring attempts by the same character to narrate her own actions aloud to be better understood says it all: when one presumes to "control" both ends of a spectrum, love becomes hate, lie becomes truth, and all means nothing. A beautiful contradiction
Rated 26 Jul 2022
58
18th
This was a weird one for me. Overlong, I found the protagonist completely intolerable (and the other characters not any better), there's nothing to really speak of when it comes to the art of it--lots of static long shots of people babbling, and a plot that doesn't go anywhere for two and a half hours before picking up a bit in the last hour, yet somehow I was never really bored and didn't hate it? I'm honestly completely baffled as to why not.
Rated 16 May 2023
63
56th
an Avant-Garde Story for its time!! an intellectual conflict in search of Love & Sex!!!
Rated 23 Sep 2023
87
84th
A funny and fascinating character study of a self-involved pretentious shitlord and the two women who inexplicably love him that also touches on the ennui of a failed revolution and the nature of changing attitudes on sexual frankness. But mostly - jesus, what an asshole!

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