Directed by Jean Eustache. Starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun, and Bernadette Lafont.
Many of the films on this list are directed by acknowledged master filmmakers with a number of great films to their credit, but Eustache's fame derives almost exclusively from this film. Thankfully, it's so great that it's capable of buoying a filmmaker's reputation without any help. Léaud stars as a twentysomething layabout who spends his days in cafés and his nights with various women. The film doesn't have a conventional story, but instead observes his life and especially his interaction between the main women in his life- the sexually frank Lebrun and the more nurturing Lafont. While the film has modest production values (no musical score, no visual effects), Eustache uses this to his advantage, knowing that fancy frills would only distract from his observation of these characters. One of the film's biggest assets is its naturalistic black-and-white cinematography, which makes every detail in the frame perfectly clear while appearing completely realistic. Mostly though, the film's triumph is in how immersed we become in these characters, as they talk, read, listen to music, drink, screw, and somehow manage to connect to each other.
See also: Review at Epinions.com
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