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S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "La maman et la putain" or "The Mother and the Whore")

 

Directed by Jean Eustache
France 1973

 

After the French New Wave, the sexual revolution, and the upheavals of May 1968 came the near religiously revered magnum opus by Jean Eustache. In his long-unavailable body of work, ranging from documentaries about his native village to closely autobiographical narrative films, Eustache pioneered a forthright and fearless brand of realism. The pinnacle of this innovative style, The Mother and the Whore follows Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a Parisian pseudo-intellectual who lives with his tempestuous girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), even as he begins a dalliance with the sexually liberated Veronika (Françoise Lebrun), leading the three into an emotionally turbulent love triangle. Through daringly sustained long takes and confessional dialogue, Eustache captures a generation navigating the disillusionment of the 1970s, and in the process achieves an intimacy so deep it cuts.

***

The Mother and the Whore (French: La maman et la putain) is a 1973 French film directed by Jean Eustache and starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Bernadette Lafont and Françoise Lebrun. An examination of the relationships between three characters in a love triangle, it was Eustache's first feature film and is considered his masterpiece. Eustache wrote the screenplay drawing inspiration from his own relationships, and shot the film from May to July 1972.

The film screened at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. With some divided initial critical reaction, it has been championed by later critics and filmmakers.

Excerpt from Wimipedia located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: May 17th, 1973 (Cannes Film Festival)

Reviews                             More Reviews                       DVD Reviews

 

Review: Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray / Region FREE - 4K UHD

Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Also available on 4K UHD which includes this Blu-ray

  

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Criterion Spine #1245 - Region FREE - 4K UHD - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime 3:39:10.595        
Video

1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 47,669,310,758 bytes

Feature: 40,977,543,168 bytes

Video Bitrate: 21.43 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate Blu-ray:

Audio

LPCM Audio French 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bits

Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio:
Criterion

 

1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 47,669,310,758 bytes

Feature: 40,977,543,168 bytes

Video Bitrate: 21.43 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

4K UHD

The film in 2160P resolution

Blu-ray

New interview with actor Françoise Lebrun (14:17)
New conversation with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin and writer Rachel Kushner (32:40)
Program on the film’s restoration (16:52)
Segment from the French television series Pour le cinéma featuring Lebrun, director Jean Eustache, and actors Bernadette Lafont and Jean-Pierre Léaud (10:30)
Trailer (2:20)
PLUS: An essay by critic Lucy Sante and an introduction to the film by Eustache


Blu-ray / 4K UHD Release Date: January 14th, 2025

Transparent Case

Chapters 24

 

 

Comments:

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (January 2025): Criterion have transferred Jean Eustache's The Mother and the Whore to 4K UHD and Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "New 4K digital restoration". The Criterion 4K UHD package has one 4K UHD disc of the film and this Blu-ray (which is also available separately) with the film and special features. While we are in possession of the 4K UHD disc we cannot resolve the encode yet and therefore cannot obtain screen captures. We hope to add to this review when possible. So, the below captures are from Criterion's 2025 1080P Blu-ray transfer.

Text screens inform us: "The restoration of the film La Maman et la Putain marks a new starting point in the rediscovery of Jean Eustache's film.
Started in January 2022 at the L'Immagine Ritrovata / Éclair Classics laboratories for the image and L.E. Diapason for the sound, this restoration lasted 4 months before being finalized and approved by Boris Eustache. The calibration was supervised by Jacques Besse.
Restoration and grading by L'Immagine Ritrovata / Éclair Classics, supervised by Jacques Besse and Boris Eustache. Sound restoration executed by Léon Rousseau - L.E. Diapason.
"

Like 4K UHD transfers of The Long Wait, and I, the Jury, and many others below, Kino's 2160P transfer of The Mother and the Whore does not have HDR applied (no HDR10, HDR10+, nor Dolby Vision.) We have seen many other 4K UHD transfers without HDR; Mondo Macabro's Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf, Cult Film's Django 4K UHD, Umbrella's 4K UHD transfer of Peter Weir's The Last Wave and Criterion's 4K UHD transfers of I Am Cuba, The Others, Rules of the Game, Branded to Kill, In the Mood For Love, Night of the Living Dead and, further examples, Masters of Cinema's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Kino's 4K UHDs of Bob le Flambeur, Last Year at Marienbad, Nostalghia, The Apartment, For a Few Dollars More, A Fistful of Dollars, In the Heat of the Night, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as well as Koch Media's Neon Demon + one of the 4K UHD transfers of Dario Argento's Suspiria.

Criterion's Blu-ray looks quite strong with the monochrome exporting defining contrast - almost saturated, very dark - and an excellent presentation in the original 1.37:1 aspect ratio. Of course with the over 3.5 hour film the more disc space the higher the bitrate and the better the HD presentation; so the 4K UHD disc has better layered contrast and is even smoother in-motion. Grain textures also appear finer. It may also be a shade brighter. Both look very good but the 4K UHD is pristine and more film-like.  

NOTE: We have added 48 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, and 4K UHD, Criterion use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original French language. The Mother and the Whore has mostly dialogues, monologues and diegetic sound with no score but there is music (often played on a phonograph by a character); by Zarah Leander, Damia, Deep Purple, Fréhel, some Offenbach, Friedrich Hollaender (Dietrich singing Falling in Love Again,) Mozart and Les Amants de Paris performed by Édith Piaf. It is authentically flat but clean and clear in the uncompressed transfer. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray and Region FREE 4K UHD disc.

The included Criterion Blu-ray has all the supplements. It offers a new 1/2 hour conversation with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin and writer Rachel Kushner (Creation Lake) where they initially talk about the triangular structure of Eustache's The Mother and the Whore and they discuss Chris Marker's A Grin Without a Cat, plus Marcel Ophuls' The Sorrow and the Pity and their effect on Kushner when she was in her 20's. They share opinions on Eustache's influences and the cultural context of his first feature film. There is also a new 1/4 hour interview with actor Françoise Lebrun (Veronika in The Mother and the Whore) from 2022 where she relates he memories of making of The Mother and the Whore and the thread that connects the director's films. Included is a 17-minute program on the film’s restoration and rediscovery fifty years after The Mother and the Whore had its initial release. There is also a ten-minute segment from the French television series Pour le cinéma featuring Lebrun, director Jean Eustache, and actors Bernadette Lafont and Jean-Pierre Léaud filmed at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival - where it won the Grand Jury Prize. Lastly is a restored trailer and the package has an essay by Belgian-born American critic Lucy Sante (I Heard Her Call My Name) and an introduction to the film by Eustache. 

Barbet Schroeder (General Idi Amin Dada - Autoportrait, La Vallee, Koko: A Talking Gorilla) loaned Jean Eustache the money to write the script for The Mother and the Whore. Eustache would make the film with his friends Jean-Pierre Léaud (Truffaut's The 400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run) and Bernadette Lafont (A Gorgeous Girl Like Me, Masques, Les Bonnes Femmes) - who has been called "the face of French New Wave". He also brought in his ex-lover, a literature student, Françoise Lebrun who had never acted before. It is autobiographical and was inspired by Eustache's various relationships. It is considered a masterpiece, and was cited as the best film of the 1970s by Cahiers du cinéma. The Mother and the Whore was ranked the second greatest French film of all time by a poll of filmmakers - after Renoir's Rules of the Game and ahead of Marcel Carné's Children of Paradise. It has only seemed to grow in stature over the years and is unusual that it has been so scarce on disc before - even DVD (by the way, Criterion is also selling it, simultaneously, in a double DVD package HERE.) Criterion's 4K UHD and Blu-ray is a must-own for world arthouse cinephiles. There are revealing supplements and a wonderful restored a/v transfer. Strongly recommended.

Gary Tooze

 


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Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Also available on 4K UHD which includes this Blu-ray

  

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Criterion - Region FREE - 4K UHD - Region 'A' - Blu-ray


 


 

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