Considered one of the towering achievements of 1970s French cinema, Jean Eustache's autobiographical The Mother and the Whore captures a disillusioned generation navigating the post-idealism 1970s as represented through a ménage à trois. An aimless, clueless Parisian pseudo-intellectual, played by the renowned Jean-Pierre Léaud, lives with his tempestuous older girlfriend (Bernadette Lafont) and begins seeing a younger, sexually liberated woman (Françoise Lebrun). What results is a volatile open relationship marked by emotional violence and subtle shifts in power dynamics. (1973, 214 minutes)
Part of the His Little Loves: Jean Eustache Stories film series.