By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.75
Director: Christophe Honoré
Starring: Emma de Caunes | Isabelle Huppert | LouisGarrel
Original language title: Ma Mère
Country: austria, france, portugal, spain
Year: 2005
Running time: 110
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381392/reference
Michael says: “Despite the starring presence of the divine Isabelle Huppert, MA MÉRE proves to be the first misstep of the festival. Set in the Canary Islands, MA MÉRE uses the gorgeous beaches and resort towns as a backdrop to a tales of extreme sexual behavior and religious morality. Pierre arrives home from Catholic boarding school to find his mother and father estranged, each engaged in their own infidelities. After his father dies in an auto accident, Pierre’s mother, Hélène, begins a creepy manipulation involving ever-increasing, alternative sexual activities. Pierre is torn between his love for his mother, his enormous sexual fascination, and the Catholic guilt that ravages him. The film spirals into a laughable conclusion, complete with a totally inappropriate American pop song playing over one of the final scenes. Huppert is great, but it’s curious that she would play a role somewhat similar to her tour de force in THE PIANO TEACHER from just a few years ago. Ultimately, MA MÉRE tries to be much more shocking than it is. 2 cats”
Bruce says: “**SPOILERS AND EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT**
“Isabelle Huppert more than dabbled in sexual depravity in the marvelous psychological study, THE PIANO TEACHER. In her follow-up film MA MÈRE Ms. Huppert has chosen a vehicle more akin to pornography than serious filmmaking. I’m sure it was not meant to turn out that way. Grasping at straws, I question whether the translations were very accurate since some of the phrases I know well in French did not come out quite right in English. Even so, it would take more than confirmation of sloppy translation to convince me that the dialogue was meant to be taken seriously. I don’t think people actually talk to each other in real life as they do in this film.
“The premise of the film is that Hélène wants her son to remember her as she really was after she is gone. She wants Pierre to know how disgusting she really is. This happens out of the blue when her son comes to visit his parents on holiday and her husband – who is the son’s father – is killed in a freak accident.
“The penultimate scene of the film places Hélène (Isabelle Huppert) behind her son Pierre (Louis Garrel). As she masturbates him, she commits suicide by slicing her throat with a box cutter. In the final scene she lies in her coffin as her son is caught masturbating along side. Earlier in the film we see him having anal intercourse with Helene’s girlfriend while his licks his mother’s leg as she sleeps close by. Also, there are some unexplained, weird sadomasochistic goings on involving a young man named Loulou and Hansi, a former girlfriend of Hélène’s that Hélène has handpicked to be her son’s lover. And Pierre gets a solo moment where he masturbates while perusing his father’s hidden porno collection. After his climax, he pisses on the porno.
“To her credit Ms. Huppert maintains her reserve throughout the film. She is exquisite at times which is one of the film’s few saving graces. In most of the sex scenes she is a voyeur which excuses her from adding unseemly activities to her resume. ANATOMY OF HELL seems positively cute compared to MA MÈRE, I never thought I’d say that. 1.5 cats”