The Cinematheque

New Restoration

“A film that deserves to be in perpetual repertory … It is more shocking than Last Tango, or nearly any other ​‘sexy’ film you can think of.”

David Thomson

Voted the second greatest French film of all time (after Renoir’s The Rules of the Game) in a poll conducted by Time Out Paris, Jean Eustache’s monumental masterpiece was a succès de scandale for its devastating dissection of sexual mores and social disenchantment in post-1968 Paris. Few films have caught the tempo of their times with more ferocious brilliance. New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud is Alexandre, a narcissistic young man involved in a wrenching ménage à trois with live-in girlfriend Marie (Bernadette Lafont) and sexually liberated nurse Veronika (Françoise Lebrun). Shot in the cramped flats and crowded bistros of the Left Bank, this remarkable three-hour-and-forty-minute film has a lively, improvisational feel that belies Eustache’s tightly scripted, highly disciplined shooting methods. Conversational and confrontational, erotic and obsessive, with utterly naked performances, it probes the social, psychological, and sexual dynamics of its characters with a depth rare in the cinema.

In French with English subtitles

The opening-night screening on July 13 will include an introduction by Thierry Garrel. From 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm, there will be a wine bar with complimentary refreshments from les amis du FROMAGE.

“An emotionally shattering, historically earthshaking film … A range of intimate disasters that have the feel and tone of epic clashes.” Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“Jean Eustache is a genius. The Mother and the Whore is the Rules of the Game of our generation.” Philippe Garrel

“Eustache made [the] film that every single director of the Nouvelle Vague had dreamed of making … Rivette, Godard, Rohmer, and Truffaut would have died to make it and every single one of them knew it. It’s the ultimate Nouvelle Vague film, except that it doesn’t come from a Nouvelle Vague filmmaker.” Olivier Assayas

“The most true and miraculous film ever made.” Nadav Lapid