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. —IMDb
Filmmaker, screenwriter Jean Eustache had a brief but important career in French cinema. His best-known film was 1973’s Mother and the Whore, an intense character study credited for marking a new phase in French filmmaking. He got his start as a director assisting such New Wave filmmakers as Godard during the 1960s. In the late ’60s, he launched his own directorial career with two features. While they garnered some acclaim, it was not until Mother and the Whore, his third feature, that the full depth of his talent and sensitivity was recognized. The film won the Grand Prix and the International Critics Award at Cannes. Through the 1970s, Eustache made several films for television and then made one last feature in 1975, Mes Petites Amoureuses. Eustache committed suicide in the early 1980s.—allmovie guide
As many people are now cut off from the reality of where meat comes from, this film may have value if it deters some from eating meat. But it's been described by critics i've read as generous, graceful and beautiful in its depiction of the pig being slaughtered and then butchered. It's admired for being appreciative of the honest work done by the group of farmer-slaughterers. Hard cold critics, the pig the beauty
in case you forget your schnitzel does not grow on the tree and that your art gastronomique is a well-tempered slaughter, eustache is there to act as a memento.
