Ma Mère

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Ma Mère
File:Ma mère 2004.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byChristophe Honoré
Screenplay byChristophe Honoré
Based onMa Mère
by Georges Bataille
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyHélène Louvart
Edited byChantal Hymans
Production
companies
  • Gemini Films
  • Les Films du Lendemain
  • Arte France Cinéma
  • Natan Productions
  • Clap Films
  • S2 International
  • Audiovisual Consulting
Distributed by
  • Gemini Films (France)
  • Atalanta Filmes (Portugal)
  • Poool Filmverleih (Austria)
Release dates
  • 19 May 2004 (2004-05-19) (France)
  • 1 July 2004 (2004-07-01) (Portugal)
  • 20 July 2007 (2007-07-20) (Austria)
Running time
110 minutes
Countries
  • France
  • Portugal
  • Spain
  • Austria
LanguageFrench
Budget€2.7 million[1]
Box office$1.5 million[2]

Ma Mère (English: My Mother) is a 2004 erotic drama film written and directed by Christophe Honoré, based on the posthumous 1966 novel of the same name by French author Georges Bataille. The film follows the incestuous relationship between a 17-year-old boy and his attractive, promiscuous, 43-year-old mother. The film stars Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, Emma de Caunes and Joana Preiss.

Honoré shot the film on location on the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. Its dialogue is almost entirely in French with brief segments in Spanish, German and English. Film distribution company TLA Releasing released Ma Mère in France, at the Cannes Film Market, on 13 May 2004.

Plot

Seventeen-year-old Pierre has recently left a Catholic boarding school to live with his wealthy parents at their villa on the island of Gran Canaria. Pierre's father dies, leaving his mother Hélène to care for him. While in a restaurant, his mother reveals to him that she had been unfaithful to her husband many times with his knowledge and feels no shame about it. She then insists that her son accept her promiscuous ways. Soon after this, Pierre finds a closet full of his father's pornography. His reaction is to furiously masturbate and then to urinate on the magazine pages.

Hélène encourages her uninhibited sex partner Réa to have sex with Pierre. She does so in public at Gran Canaria's Yumbo Centrum, a popular shopping and nightlife complex. Hélène looks on longingly as the partially clothed couple copulates with passersby raising no objections.

Afterwards, Hélène includes her son in an orgy with her friends, including Hansi. After the orgy, Hélène decides that she must leave her son to travel. While saying goodbye to Pierre, she implies that something taboo has happened between them and that she must leave to prevent it from happening again.

Upon Hélène's departure, Hansi enters Pierre's life as a friend. She admits befriending Pierre at Hélène's encouragement but denies receiving a fee from her. Their friendship blossoms into a tender romance and they both fall in love. During their relationship, Hansi reveals that she has participated in sado-masochistic sex many times as a dominatrix with her friend Loulou as the willing masochist. She adds Hélène arranged these encounters as sexual exhibitions for tourists.

Hélène returns home with Réa. Upon arriving, she finds her son and Hansi socializing at a bar near the villa. Hélène and Pierre greet each other and chat while gazing into each other's eyes, with Hansi looking on jealously. Hélène invites her son to sleep with her. He agrees.

Hélène and Pierre enter the house's wine cellar. Hélène asks her son to cut her abdomen with a razor while he masturbates and as he climaxes she slits her own throat. Paramedics take away her body. Pierre says good-bye to his mother before the cremation. He enters the room where she lies in state and masturbates exclaiming that he does not want to die as she is carried out.

Cast

Release

Theatrical

Ma Mère was rated NC-17 when it was released in the United States. The reason was "strong and aberrant sexual content".[3] For the trailer the film was presented as an NC-17 film while mistakenly defining the rating as "under 17 requires supervision by parent or guardian" (which is the definition of the R rating).

Home media

An edited R-rated version running ten minutes shorter was released on DVD. The reason for the R rated version was "Strong Aberrant Sexuality, Some Language and Violent Images".

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 14% based on reviews from 43 critics. The site's consensus reads "Pretentious, overly perverse and dull."[4] On Metacritic the film has a score of 35% based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[5]

Scott Foundas of Variety called it "Respectable, tightly coiled, but ultimately unrewarding."[6][3]

Jonathan Romney associated the film with the New French Extremity.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ma mère". JP's Box-Office.
  2. ^ "Ma mère (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b Stephen Holden (13 May 2005). "Ma Mère". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  4. ^ "My Mother (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes.
  5. ^ "My Mother". Metacritic. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  6. ^ Foundas, Scott (23 June 2004). "Ma Mere". Variety.

External links

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