Ma mère (2004)
Country: FR/SP/ÖST
Technical: col 112m
Director: Christophe Honoré
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, Emma de Caunes, Dominique Reymond
Synopsis:
The son of separated parents goes to visit his mother in the Canary Islands, where she lives a well-heeled and dissolute existence, and she before long sets about his initiation into the circle of her sexual partners and collaborators. He lends himself to this voyage of discovery, which is as much a discovery of who his mother is, with the same cold indifference to others' feelings that she displayed.
Review:
A brave adaptation of a Bataille novel, taking in as it does flagellation, coprophilia and masturbation over a mother's corpse among its depravities. The mixture of childish cruelty and remorse that the hero displays is well conveyed, as is the milieu of expats and holiday revellers. The director employs a grungy, handheld shooting aesthetic which enhances the impression of danger and reality. The short snatches of Barber's Agnus Dei are a curiosity amid all this, since there seems little sign of redemption in the film's conclusion.
Country: FR/SP/ÖST
Technical: col 112m
Director: Christophe Honoré
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, Emma de Caunes, Dominique Reymond
Synopsis:
The son of separated parents goes to visit his mother in the Canary Islands, where she lives a well-heeled and dissolute existence, and she before long sets about his initiation into the circle of her sexual partners and collaborators. He lends himself to this voyage of discovery, which is as much a discovery of who his mother is, with the same cold indifference to others' feelings that she displayed.
Review:
A brave adaptation of a Bataille novel, taking in as it does flagellation, coprophilia and masturbation over a mother's corpse among its depravities. The mixture of childish cruelty and remorse that the hero displays is well conveyed, as is the milieu of expats and holiday revellers. The director employs a grungy, handheld shooting aesthetic which enhances the impression of danger and reality. The short snatches of Barber's Agnus Dei are a curiosity amid all this, since there seems little sign of redemption in the film's conclusion.
Country: FR/SP/ÖST
Technical: col 112m
Director: Christophe Honoré
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, Emma de Caunes, Dominique Reymond
Synopsis:
The son of separated parents goes to visit his mother in the Canary Islands, where she lives a well-heeled and dissolute existence, and she before long sets about his initiation into the circle of her sexual partners and collaborators. He lends himself to this voyage of discovery, which is as much a discovery of who his mother is, with the same cold indifference to others' feelings that she displayed.
Review:
A brave adaptation of a Bataille novel, taking in as it does flagellation, coprophilia and masturbation over a mother's corpse among its depravities. The mixture of childish cruelty and remorse that the hero displays is well conveyed, as is the milieu of expats and holiday revellers. The director employs a grungy, handheld shooting aesthetic which enhances the impression of danger and reality. The short snatches of Barber's Agnus Dei are a curiosity amid all this, since there seems little sign of redemption in the film's conclusion.