Directed by Jean Eustache • 1969 • France
As political and social tumult rocked France in May and June of 1968, Jean Eustache used his first documentary to focus on persistent tradition, in the form of a centuries-old ceremony in his hometown of Pessac. Each year, Pessac’s civic leaders choose a young woman they consider an exemplar of moral virtue, with a daylong celebration commemorating the changing of the guard from the previous year’s “virgin” to the present one. Eustache observes the exacting selection process, the fostering of communal bonds, and a bold implication by Pessac’s presiding priest that the ritual upholds the same Christian values for which leftist students and workers were then currently fighting.
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Numéro zéro
Directed by Jean Eustache • 1971 • France
Starring Jean Eustache, Odette Robert, Boris EustacheBefore paying homage to his grandmother Odette Robert in the autobiographical MY LITTLE LOVES, Jean Eustache made NUMÉRO ZÉRO, a documentary portrait in which Robert answers questions about her diffic...
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The Pig
Directed by Jean Eustache and Jean-Michel Barjol • 1970 • France
Jean Eustache returned to his hometown, the farming community of Pessac, to create this cinema-verité record of the ritual slaughter of a pig, codirected with Jean-Michel Barjol. The documentary captures in unflinching detail—and i...
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A Dirty Story
Directed by Jean Eustache • 1977 • France
Starring Michael Lonsdale, Jean-Noël Picq, Laurie ZimmerDeceptively simple in form and content, Jean Eustache’s A DIRTY STORY is a fascinatingly complex investigation of the relationship between fiction and documentary, verbal and visual storytelling, a...
