Last week I got an admittedly excessive 4K UHD Blu-ray in the mail. Normally $75.99, I caught it at 48% off at $39.20. It was the 40th Anniversary Edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and it came with the theatrical cut, the special edition cut, and the director’s cut. It has a poster book with a guide to the differences between all three cuts, a glut of special features, and the box lights up and sings part of the score. I also have a 4K copy of Super Mario Bros. (1993) that has more literature on the film than any of my copies of Casablanca (1942), and I own a lot of ‘em. It’s the second golden age of physical media, and The Mother and the Whore (1973), Jean Eustache’s (My Little Loves; Santa Clause has Blue Eyes) crowning achievement, is entering the Criterion Collection on 4K UHD, but that’s excessive in a different way.
L-R: Jean-Pierre Léaud as Alexandre, Bernadette Lafont as Marie, and Françoise Lebrun as Veronika in Jean Eustache’s 1973 drama THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE. Photo courtesy of Janus Films/Criterion Collection.
The Mother and the Whore is a French New Wave film following Alexandre, played by Jean-Pierre Léaud (The 400 Blows; The Dreamers). He’s a do-nothing layabout who earns money through some kind of occasional writing. He spends his days in cafés starting and ruining relationships with women. When the film begins, he gets out of bed with his girlfriend Marie, played by Bernadette Lafont (Out 1; The Handsome Serge), and stalks his ex-girlfriend Gilberte (Isabelle Weingarten (Four Nights of a Dreamer; The State of Things)), proposing to her on the street. After being rejected, he meets and secures the phone number of the mysterious Veronika, masterfully played by Françoise Lebrun (Julia & Julia; Vortex).
“I’m only interested in people who are interested in me”
Told in a marathon of monologues, diatribes, and conversations in two-shot, this autofiction masterpiece diagnoses the curdling of the free-love era and its evolution into the final form of “the sexual revolution.” Women were finally free to access the healthcare they needed to love as they wanted, and men had been freed of consequences. Toxic masculinity with an open mind and a well-read vocabulary runs rampant in this nightmare of a polyamorous situationship. Youth and longing flood the film, such as when Alexandre tries to read while listening to “Un Souvenir” performed by Dumia, only to be overwhelmed by the music, or when Marie and Veronika commiserate about the flaws of their mutual boyfriend. Taking place in the years-long hangover of May 1968, a period of feminist and student revolt against the staid, Catholic France of the establishment, The Mother and the Whore has remained one of the great French films.
The film is 3 hours 39 minutes long. That is a lot of movie for your dollar no matter how you swing it, unless you swing to jacking the price up, which is what Criterion has done. Clocking in at $49.95, responsible cinephiles will have to choose which version to purchase. The 2K Blu-ray is $10 cheaper. With customers used to buying flashy light-up boxes and limited-run special editions on the boutique market, it can be habitual to purchase the most expensive offering of a canonical film like this. But that’s not always the best choice.
L-R: Françoise Lebrun as Veronika and Jean-Pierre Léaud as Alexandre in Jean Eustache’s 1973 drama THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE. Photo courtesy of Janus Films/Criterion Collection.
Unless you have an OLED TV, the light bleed in the black levels of the image that is common in LCD or QLED TVs limits the draw of 4K UHD. Without proper contrast levels, it’s the HDR marriage of high dynamic range with saturation along with the sharpness of an image that makes a purchase worth it. But when a film is shot on 16 mm black and white like this, I’d rather have the flexibility of sharing and purchasing that comes from a 2K print from a 4K master.
“Fake is the hereafter”
On my Sony XBR-65X850D 4K TV and LG-UBK90 4K player, I could differentiate no practical difference between the two discs when pixel peeping. There’s a great feature on this disk about the restoration process by Les Films du Losange, and it details how the majority of the film is digitized from 16 mm positive reversal A/B rolls. When shown in cinemas, it was presented on a blown-up transfer to 35 mm, some of which was used to patch up this 4K copy.
In short, due to how the film was shot, there is a floor and ceiling to the images’ details that cannot be drawn out by HDR. Unless your setup has trouble upscaling 2K Blu-rays, the number of cinephiles who would fine it worthwhile to purchase the 4K is limited.
The Mother and the Whore is a classic, and everyone should see it at least once. Probably 2-3 times over a lucky life. The included restoration trailer boasts of its influence on filmmakers over the decades, as does the zine. Like all great, long movies, the flow state it envelops you in is a special experience. To aim it at something so personal, Eustache’s loss of love and hope, filmed in the wake of May 1968, is an awesome sacrifice that demands to be reckoned with. The suite of special features is well-rounded and full of more meaty discussion than Criterion releases with similar offerings. It’s the kind of film that generates great discussions. But $50 is too high for this specific 4K image. Go for the $40 Blu-ray.
The Mother and the Whore Special Features:
- *New* 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- *New *interview with actor Françoise Lebrun
- *New* conversation with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin and writer Rachel Kushner
- Program on the film’s restoration
- Segment from the French television series Pour le cinéma featuring Lebrun, director Jean Eustache, and actors Bernadette Lafont and Jean-Pierre Léaud
- Trailer
- *New* English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Lucy Sante and an introduction to the film by Eustache
- *New* cover by Eric Skillman
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD via The Criterion Collection January 14th, 2025.
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Categories: Home Release, Recommendation
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