The Mother and the Whore

The second film I have discovered in my journey to find lost films is the Jean Eustache film The Mother and the Whore from 1973. This film is an epic from the French New Wave, even if it was made in '73. It is definitely a product of that era. It is also the ultimate talking film. With a running time of three and a half hours the only action in the film is people talking and people having sex.
The film follows three main people: Alexandre (played by Jean Pierre Leaud, who himself is a familiar in the French New Wave, most notably his debut role in Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows, the film that started the French New Wave), Marie (played by Bernadette Lafont), and Veronika (played by Francoise Lebrun).
The film follows these three characters as they go through their day to day life of promiscurity and philosphy. Alexandre is in love and lives with Marie but still has relationships on the side. When he falls for Veronika, who is a nurse, things get even more complicated as those feelings grow even stronger and his dedication and love for Marie never wanes. Marie loves Alexandre and seems unaffected by his love affairs as she has a couple herself and Veronika doesn't really care about Alexandre's relationship with Marie, all she knows is that she loves him.
This a very powerful and sexual film.We see the activites of these individuals and we immediately embrace them as the characters do. As the film progresses, the intensity that the characters bring to their situation is so compelling that even though it is already three and a half hours long you wish it was longer.
The film is a lot like life. There is no real solution, these characters just take it day by day. Alexandre never decides between Marie or Veronkia, he just simply goes back and forth between the two, constantly toying with their emotions. And Marie and Veronika never force him to choose, Veronika just simply refers to him as the luckiest man in the world to have two women that love him.
With all that being said this is definitely a film that needs to be seen. It does not need to be forgotten. Whereas its rival, Last Tango in Paris (also starring Leaud) has already made it to blu-ray, where The Mother and the Whore is only availble on VHS. On amazon.com, a brand new VHS costs $65.00 and a used one costs $33.99. Too high for a dead technology.
In comparison, The Mother and the Whore is a far better film than Last Tango in Paris, not to dismiss the greatness of Paris, but The Mother and the Whore is a lot more emotionally deeper and offers a better insight into the sexual feelings and urges of the human being. But why has Last Tango had a good release while The Mother and the Whore has suffered this neglect? I don't have a clear answer for that but I know a solution.
I was able to find the film in its entirety on YouTube in twenty-one parts and I'm glad I found it, but this film is in desperate need of a proper DVD/blu-ray release. It would be amazing if the Criterion Collection could work their magic and put this film out, but there is not even a hint that that's going to happen. But if not the Criterion, than any distributor will do, just as long as it gets the proper release it deserves after all these years.
This film is a masterpiece from Jean Eustache and it perfectly captures the era in which it was made and the sensibilities that surrounded that era.