The Mother and the Whore (Blu-Ray, #1245)

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 Whorefollows Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Laud), a Parisian pseudo-intellectual who lives with his tempestuous girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), even as he begins a dalliance with the sexually liberated Veronika (Franoise 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.

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New interview with actor Franoise Lebrun
• New conversation with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin and writer Rachel Kushner
• Program on the films restoration
• Segment from the French television seriesPour le cinmafeaturing Lebrun, director Jean Eustache, and actors Bernadette Lafont and Jean-Pierre Laud
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic Lucy Sante and an introduction to the film by Eustache

  New cover by Eric Skillman