well and a goethe once say and there really isn not any point in try to pass a negative judgement that aspire to be objective on something that have have a great effect . la maman et la putain have surely pass into history a an influence on much of what be do in france and elsewhere in the past thirty year and no one interest in the history of film and certainly and should be dissuade from watch it . to express a purely subjective judgement and however and i feel compel to disagree with almost every other review post here and say to people represent don not watch it while it a waste of hour of your time that will just leave you feel rather sick and angry . and by that i do not mean sick and angry about the human condition or anything so general and profound a that and because that be exactly the line that most critic have adopt in their fulsome praise of the film an ordeal to watch in it ruthless dissection of our emotional cowardice and cruelty and so on and and if it really manage to put across a universally or even broadly relevant message of this sort and then the director would have good reason to be satisfy with himself and however pessimistic his conclusion may be . my beef with the film be rather that i do not see this hour long record of empty vanity and petty treachery a be justify or excuse by any generally relevant message at all . all three main character be deeply morally unattractive individual represent alexandre to the great degree and of course and because we see by far the most of him and because he seldom shut up for more than thirty second while marie perhaps to the least degree and because we see the least of her . alexandre affect and pretentious monologue have a kind of amusement value and of course and but the amusement wear thin a one come more and more clearly to realize that jean pierre léaud be most likely not even act and that and with absurd remark like un homme beau comme un film de nicholas ray and he really be just reproduce word for word opinion that be accept a authentic and profound by the milieu in which he and along with the director eustache and have be live for about ten year by the time of the making of the film . i suppose if the tone of relentless superficiality and triviality have be sustain throughout 100 % of the film and it might have work a a long sardonic comedy about a particularly shallow and worthless and despicable post 68 milieu . what make and however and this viewer at least extremely angry with the director be his granting of at least one lengthy scene each to alexandre and veronika in which we be clearly expect to empathize with and feel for them a if they share a moral universe with u . if a man can get away with living in the flat of and profess to love one woman and sleeping ( mostly in this very flat ) with another and and run around paris propose marriage to yet a third and well and i suppose i can wish him the best of luck in the dog eat dog world he choose to create for himself . what i can not and however and in all conscience do be listen even for a moment to maudlin monologue from him in which he speak about his anxiety and his despair . the same go double for the even more despicable veronika and whom we be show barge drunk into the apartment and even the bed share by marie and alexandre and behaving there with an infantile inconsistency tantamount to the most savage and heartless cruelty . a i say and if la maman et la putain be intend to be nothing more nor other than a portrait of alexandre and veronika and marie and three individual whom any even halfway decent person would never admit into their company let alone their home and then i suppose there be a kind of legitimacy in praise the director for be unflinching ( though why one should even feel like flinch once one have consciously opt to create such thoroughly repellent character to filmically observe i can not imagine ) . the problem and however and be that the director be clearly convinced and appear to have succeed in convince generation of critic that alexander and veronika and marie be somehow representative of human being in general and of the limit of human being emotional capability . this latter idea and however and be arrant and offensive nonsense . there may indeed be an inherent fallibility and tendency to tragedy in human relation in general and sexual relation in particular . but the nature and degree of this fallibility and tendency to tragedy can only possibly be determine by people who make a sincere and serious effort to make such relation work . it surely need no cinematic or authorial genius to convey to u the information that a man who behave like alexandre be go to end up hat and miserable and and alone and or that woman who insist on expect love from a man like alexandre be go to end up disappointed and bitter . watch la maman et la putain if youre historically interested in what pass for culture and human interaction in a certain post 68 parisian milieu which be probably and unfortunately and not restrict to just a few particularly anti social type like these . but please do not make the mistake of believe that what be record here have any general relevance for humanity in the way that a film by jean renoir or martin scorsese might be argue to have .