Saturday 21 November 2009

(500) Films of Empire - Day 67

293 - La Maman Et La Putain - 2 stars
Travelled down to Edinburgh today to see The Mother And The Whore, one of the films that was proving very difficult to source. Luckily for me, it was having a special screening as part of the French Film Festival in a Jean Eustache retrospective.
Let's face facts... this is a 3 and a half hour long, black and white, subtitled film about a group of people essentially doing nothing but discussing their relationships. Transformers this is not!
This film is certainly not for everyone. On paper this film sounded incredibly dull and, dare I say it, pretentious. Yet I was surprised how well the film flowed, there weren't too many glances at the watch.
A seriously honest look at sex and relationships through a menage a trois of Alexandre, Marie and Veronika. The performances are very natural and create unexpected humour in some of the exchanges. Towards the end of the film there is a stunning 10 minute single take monologue from one of the woman as she breaks down under the strain of the relationship.
The ending of the film was rather abrupt and silly though.

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