The Mother And The Whore (1973)

In the middle of watching this, I got so bored I got up and started making a complicated savory pastry for my lunch, leaving the DVD running and glancing at the TV from the kitchen as I worked. Some may call that disrespectful to the film – but honestly, if the film wanted my undivided attention, it could have done a way better job of retaining it. Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud, who we actually last saw in The 400 Blows) is an unemployed guy in Paris, living with his girlfriend, shopkeeper Marie (Bernadette Lafont). On paper they have an open relationship, but any time either tries to go outside the relationship the other gets massively jealous. That doesn’t stop Marie from having regular hookups with a guy named Phillippe (we never meet him), nor does it stop Alexandre from hitting on Veronika (Françoise Lebrun), a nurse at the local hospital. At least in Veronika’s case, Marie is open enough to enter into a menage a trois for a while – even though no one seems very happy about it.…