A Man Confused by Sexual Liberation and the Crisis in France / "The Mother and the Whore"

The post-war period in France reached a critical point in 1968.
In French, "Mai 68" refers to the May Revolution (or May Crisis) that occurred in May of that year. Within a France that was prospering under the Fifth Republic established by President de Gaulle, there was a swirling dissatisfaction among students and workers influenced by counterculture, the sexual revolution, and Maoism flowing in from other countries. Director Jean-Luc Godard, who had revealed his political stance the previous year with the film "La Chinoise," joined forces with directors like François Truffaut. On May 19, 1968, they stormed the ongoing Cannes Film Festival and demanded its cancellation as a protest against the government and police handling the demonstrations and riots occurring across the country. At this time, actress Monica Vitti, director Roman Polanski, director Louis Malle, and other jury members abandoned their duties in response to the request from Godard and his colleagues, and that year's Cannes Film Festival was cancelled.
The May Revolution, which subsided after the election held the following month revealed majority support for President de Gaulle, had a significant impact on French intellectuals and culture. Jean Eustache's 1973 film "The Mother and the Whore," which is considered one of the most important works of post-war French cinema, was born out of these circumstances and well represents the drift of French culture after the May Revolution.
What is depicted over the course of its 219-minute length is the strange relationship between one man and two women. In French, this is expressed as a "ménage à trois." In Japan, there was once the term "shusho dokyo" (cohabitation of wife and concubine). There is also the term "love triangle," but in this film, since both women love the man and sleep with him, it is a ménage à trois.
The protagonist, Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud), is told by Gilberte, who teaches bacteriology, that she wants to break up. Gilberte criticizes Alexandre's wandering lifestyle and says she will marry another man. However, Alexandre lives with a woman named Marie. Marie, who works in fashion, acts like Alexandre's guardian.
One day, Alexandre meets Veronika, who enjoys a free sexual life, and invites her to the room he shares with Marie. The ménage à trois is short-lived; Marie and Veronika reveal their inner thoughts to each other and to Alexandre, and the strange relationship between the three begins to change.
If one were to ask what is "important" about this mundane plot, it is the characterization. Thanks to the script that director Eustache wrote with such desperation, Alexandre speaks a massive amount of dialogue, almost like he is talking to himself. Rather than speaking to the Marie or Veronika in front of him, it is almost entirely a monologue.
If this were merely "sophistry," it would be nothing more than the monologue of a bizarre man like those appearing in the works of director Godard, who highly praised Eustache. However, the lines spoken by Alexandre in "The Mother and the Whore" perfectly express a situation that could be called "ideological lostness," speaking for the French intellectuals of 1973. It is a script so grounded in reality that director Godard was not a straightforward enough person to have written it.
Therefore, when watching this film, if one is unfamiliar with post-war France or the ideologies of the time, one will likely not understand what Alexandre's statements are referring to. While those well-versed in French or Western thought might understand, the "audience" for this film in Japan is likely limited.
Through Alexandre, who discusses Borges' novels and argues the significance of the May Revolution, the rootless atmosphere of Paris at the time is conveyed. Taking Veronika to a bistro and mentioning Walter Benjamin's "The Arcades Project" is a characterization that hardly seems like a movie character, but because of that, it brings to mind the image of French intellectuals of the time spending their days in cafes lost in empty theories. It is rare to find a work that shows off being "French" to this extent. The cafes "Les Deux Magots" and "Café de Flore," which appear many times in the film, are popular spots that are still swarmed by tourists obsessed with French culture today.
Incidentally, the person in charge of the subtitles surely didn't know "The Arcades Project," so they translated it as "road." "Passage" would have been fine.
Watching this film, one clearly understands what director Godard lacked. It is the stance of showing reality exactly as it is. It is the attitude of director John Cassavetes. This is the reason why I hardly rate the French New Wave. Whether a man with his face painted blue is about to blow away on the beach, or someone collapses in the streets of Paris saying "it makes me sick," if it doesn't move the audience's heart, then what on earth is the "New Wave" for? I would rather watch the works of director François Truffaut or director Louis Malle than watch a spectacle of bizarre characters jumping around. Even when I read articles praising director Godard, I feel no sense of persuasion. It's just like Alexandre in "The Mother and the Whore."
Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, whose name appears in the film, became famous through the New Wave, but he left the movement before the May Revolution and switched to films that audiences could enjoy, such as the 1972 film "The Burglars" (La Scoumoune).
Although the French Communist Party is not discussed directly, it was the height of the Cold War, and it was an era when debates over nuclear development were active in France. The sight of an intellectual man being overwhelmed by a woman's true feelings and nature is profound, as if it is presenting to the audience, more than logic, what is "truly compelling" in a naked way.
By the way, the original title of this film is "La maman et la putain," and normally, Marie, who lives with him, would be understood as the "mother" and Veronika as the "whore." However, for me, this is a story where the real mother is Veronika, and Marie is the whore. This is because sexual liberation should be the overcoming of the common sense that a woman (the mother) takes care of a man.