The Mother and the Whore

It's a masterpiece, dammit, and of the French New Wave, no less. In art house circles, the video release of Jean Eustache's 1973 titanic-lengthed character study is an event. But for anyone who doesn't have an accompanying presskit of reviews painstakingly explaining why this is a landmark and significant film, it could inspire more restlessness than rapture. Jean-Pierre Leaud (Francois Truffaut's alter-ego in the Antoine Doinel films) stars as the hyper-verbal Alexandre, who fancies himself an intellectual. He leaves the bed of Marie, with whom he lives and by whom he is supported, to unsuccessfully compel his former lover to marry him, and then picks up the more willing Veronika, a nurse with a terrific bedside manner (except for her odd habit of not removing her tampon before making love). As their affair progresses, Alexandre introduces Veronika into his and Marie's apartment, and ultimately, their bed. Very French, n'est pas? Alexandre could be describing this film while reading Marie the review of another: "This film is a real film, an elaborate, compressed rhythmic work that shows the main characters' obsessions and contradictions." But one is tempted to take him at his word when at one point he tells Veronika, "If I'm boring you, stop me." Recommended. (K. Lee Benson)