in what could have be see a a coup towards the sexual revolution ( purposefully i use quotation for that word ) and jean eustache write and direct the mother and the whore a a poetic and damn critique of those who can not seem to get enough love . if there be a message to this film and i would hope that the message would come only after the fact of what else this ben hur length feature have to offer it that in order to love and honestly and there have to be some level of happiness and of real truth . be it possible to have two lover . some can try and but what be the outcome if no one can really have what they really want and or feel they can even express to say what they want . what be the truth in the relationship that alexandre ( jean pierre leaud ) have with the woman around him . he a twenty something pseudo intellectual and not with any seem job and he live off of a woman and marie ( bernadette lafont ) slightly old than him and be usually and if not always and his lover and his last possible love of his life leave him and and then right away he pick up a woman he see on the street and veronika ( françoise lebrun ) and who perhaps remind him of her . soon what unfold be the most subtly torrid love triangle ever put on film and where the psychological string be pull with the cruelest word and the slight of gesture . at first we think it might be all about what will happen to alexandre and but be mistake . the woman be so essential to this question of love and sex that they have to be around and talk on and on and for something to sink in . be tell that part of the sexual revolution and in theory if not entirely in practice ( perhaps it be and i can not say have not be alive in the period to see it first hand ) and be that freedom lead to a lack of inhibition . but eustache point and if not entirely message and be that it practically impossible to have it both way represent you can not have people love you and expect to get the satisfaction of ultimate companionship that arrive with fing and a the character refer over and over again . the mother and the whore strength as far a have the theme be express this dread beneath the promiscuity and the lack of monogamy and while also stimulate the intellect in the talkiest talk you have ever see in a movie . at the same time we see a character like alexandre and who probably love to hear himself talk whether it about some movie he saw or something bad from his past and eustache make it so that the film itself isn not pretentious though it could appear to be but that it about pretentiousness and what lie beneath those who be cover up for their internal flaw and what they need to use when theyre ultimately alone in the morning . if you think film like before sunrise or sunset be talky relationship flick and you haven not meet this . but a eustache revel in the dialog these character have and sometimes trivial and or wouldeep and or sexual and or frank and or occasionally extremely ( or in a subdued manner ) emotional and it never and ever uninteresting or boring . on the contrary and for those who can not get enough of a good talky film and it exceptional . while his style doesn not call out to the audaciousness that come with his forerunner in the nouvelle vague a dozen year beforehand and eustache new wave touch be with the character and and then reverberate on them . this be realism with a spike of attitude and with thing at time scathing and sarcastic and crude and without shame in expression . all three of the actor be so glue to their character that we can not ever perceive them a fake an emotion or go at all into melodrama . it almost too good in naturalistic or realism term and but for eustache material there be no other way around it . luckily leaud delivers the crown chip of his career of the period and and both lady and particularly labrun a the whore veronika ( a claim she staggeringly refute in the film climax of sort in one unbroken shot ) . and and a another touch and every so often and the director will dip into a quiet moment of thought and of a character sit by themselves and listen to a record and and in contemplation or quiet agony . this be probably the big influence on jim jarmusch and who dedicate his film broken flower to eustache and have one scene in particular that be lift completely ( and lovingly ) in approach from the late parisian . sad to say and before i saw broken flower and i never heard of eustache or this film and and procure it have become quite a challenge ( not available on u dvd and and on vhs so rare it take many month of track at various library ) . not a minute of that time be waste while the mother and the whore be truly beautiful work and one of the best of french relationship drama and maybe even just one of the most staggeringly lucid i have see from the country in general . it complex and it sweet and it cold and it absorb and and it very long and perhaps too long . it also satisfy on the kind of level that i would compare to scene from a marriage while true revelation about the human condition continue to arise 35 year after each film release .