Jean Eustache

The Mother and the Whore

Jean Eustache

Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Léaud

Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.

The American Friend

Wim Wenders

Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz

Tom Ripley, an American who deals in forged art, is slighted at an auction in Hamburg by picture framer Jonathan Zimmerman. When Ripley is asked by gangster Raoul Minot to kill a rival, he suggests Zimmerman, and the two, exploiting Zimmerman's terminal illness, coerce him into being a hitman.

Une sale histoire

Jean Eustache

Michael Lonsdale, Laurie Zimmer

A group of friends listen as one man tells them a story about a time when, in a small cafe, he discovered a peephole into the ladies' bathroom and became addicted to looking through it at female genitals. They ask him questions and come to conclusions about sex. This is a filmed, scripted version. Then, the actual person who this happened to relates the same story; this time, however, it is an unscripted documentary, in which the same things occur as in the scripted one.

Les Ministères de l'art

Philippe Garrel

Chantal Akerman, Juliet Berto

Philippe Garrel’s documentary on France’s second wave of masterful filmmakers. Featuring Jean Eustache, Chantal Akerman, André Téchiné, Leos Carax, Jacques Doillon and Benoit Jacquot.

My Little Loves

Jean Eustache

Ingrid Caven, Henri Martinez

A study of minor events in the adolescence of a boy growing up in small towns. Daniel lives with his grandmother and, after a year of high school, goes to live with his mother in the south of France; a harsher environment which rapidly changes his perception of friends, work, and women.

Odette Robert

Jean Eustache

Jean Eustache

Eustache’s grandmother Odette Robert was a key figure in his life, serving as a substitute mother during much of his childhood (My Little Loves was dedicated to her). In 1971, he recorded an interview with her that went largely unseen until 2003—Eustache never screened the complete film publicly, although a radically truncated version was presented on television. In a string of long, stationary takes, the camera watches over Eustache’s shoulder while he pours countless glasses of whiskey and Odette tells the stories of her life. A number of her themes resonate with those of Eustache’s films: cruelty, male philandering, the Rosière festival of Pessac. Number Zero is a return to origins—of cinema and of the self—and an experiment in narration, both restrained and deeply personal.

Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes

Jean Eustache

Jean-Pierre Léaud

Daniel needs some money to buy a duffle coat that is in fashion, so he agrees to work for a photographer by dressing up as Santa Claus. He discovers that it is much easier to meet girls when he is in his costume.

Weekend

Jean-Luc Godard

Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne

A supposedly idyllic weekend trip to the countryside turns into a never-ending nightmare of traffic jams, revolution, cannibalism and murder as French bourgeois society starts to collapse under the weight of its own consumer preoccupations.

La Rosière de Pessac

Jean Eustache

This landmark documentary by Jean Eustache, filmed in 1968, hilariously exposes small-town pomposity and naiveté as it chronicles the preparations for an annual contest to crown a village’s most virtuous young woman.

Les Photos d'Alix

Jean Eustache

Boris Eustache, Alix Clio-Roubaud

Alix Cléo Roubaud, a photographer, describes her images to Eustache’s son Boris. An “essay in the shape of a hoax”, Eustache’s last film wittily questions the relationship between showing and telling as it gradually shifts Alix’s narration out of sync with what we see.

Les enthousiastes: 'Le jardin des délices' de Jérôme Bosch

Jean Eustache

Filmed by Jean Eustache for the television program, Les Enthousiastes, Hieronymous Bosch's Garden of Delights presents a series of unstructured observations, free associations, and interpretations on the third panel of Bosch's well-known oil on wood triptych.

Les Mauvaises Fréquentations

Jean Eustache

Aristide, Daniel Bart

Two men in their twenties spend their time in Parisian cafes trying to pick up women. They take one girl dancing, and then steal her purse when she prefers to dance with another man.

Le Cochon

Jean Eustache, Jean-Michel Barjol

In the French countryside it's the day for peasants to kill a big fat pig. The slaughter goes on for a great part of the day as they work to store 140kg worth of meat.

Les Roses de la vie

Paul Vecchiali

Germaine de France, Jean Eustache

François Truffaut said of Paul Vecchiali in his early days that he was "the only true heir of Jean Renoir." The first short film of this director, who was to become a singular figure of independent French cinema, follows the path of an elderly woman towards her memories and beyond. Attentive, affectionate and sometimes cruel, Vecchiali's camera invents its own expressive language.

La Rosière de Pessac 79

Jean Eustache

In 1979, under the presidency of the city mayor, the people of Pessac elect a virtuous and gracious maiden from amongst the residents, following a tradition that comes from times immemorial.

Vincent mit l'âne dans un pré (et s'en vint dans l'autre)

Pierre Zucca

Fabrice Luchini, Michel Bouquet

This is the tale of a father-son duo who are unable to leave each other. The trouble begins when the son decides to destroy his father's image.