The Mother and the Whore

The Mother and the Whore ( French:  La Maman et la Putain ) is a 1973 French film directed by  Jean Eustache. Examining the relationship between three characters in a love triangle, it was Eustache's first feature film and is considered his masterpiece.

Plot
The film focuses on three twenty-somethings in an unconventional love triangle in Paris during the summer of 1972. Alexandre ( Jean-Pierre Léaud) is an unemployed young man involved with both a live-in girlfriend Marie ( Bernadette Lafont) and the Polish nurse Veronika ( Françoise Lebrun). He had picked up Veronika at a café after an unsuccessful reconciliation with a former love, Gilberte (Isabelle Weingarten). With Veronika, he begins a desultory affair. Although Marie affirms her indifference to Alexandre's affairs, she quickly changes her mind when she sees how close he becomes to Veronika. This leads to a growing estrangement between her and Alexandre. The film focuses less on plot or narrative than on the confused and ambivalent life style of these three young people in post- May '68 Paris

Cast

 * Bernadette Lafont as Marie
 * Jean-Pierre Léaud as Alexandre
 * Françoise Lebrun as Veronika
 * Isabelle Weingarten as Gilberte
 * Jacques Renard as Alexandre's Friend