''Ma Mère'' () is a 2004

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film written and directed by

Christophe Honoré Christophe Honoré (; born 10 April 1970) is a French writer and film and theatre director. Career Honoré was born in Carhaix, Finistère. After moving to Paris in 1995, he wrote articles in . He started writing soon after. His 1996 book ''Tout ...

, based on the

posthumous Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...

1966 novel of the same name by French author

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

. The film follows the

incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...

uous relationship between a 17-year-old boy and his attractive,

promiscuous Promiscuity is the practice of engaging in sexual activity frequently with different partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. The term can carry a moral judgment. A common example of behavior viewed as promiscuous by man ...

, 43-year-old mother. The film stars

Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation. With 16 nominations and two win ...

Louis Garrel Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in ''The Dreamers (2003 film), The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Emma de Caunes Emma de Caunes (born 9 September 1976) is a French actress. Life and career De Caunes was born in Paris on 9 September 1976 as the daughter of actor and director Antoine de Caunes and director and graphic designer Gaëlle Royer. Her paternal gra ...

and Joana Preiss. An international co-production of France, Portugal, Spain and Austria, the film was shot on location on the island of

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spain, Spanish archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa. the island had a population of that constitut ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, Spain. Its dialogue is almost entirely in French with brief segments in Spanish, German and English. The film was released in France on 19 May 2004 by Gemini Films, in Portugal on 1 July 2004 by Leopardo Filmes and in Austria on 20 July 2007 by Poool Filmverleih.

Plot

Seventeen-year-old Pierre has recently left a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

boarding school to live with his wealthy parents at their villa on the island of

. 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

ways. Soon after this, Pierre finds a closet full of his father's

pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...

. His reaction is to furiously

masturbate Masturbation is a form of autoeroticism in which a person Sexual stimulation, sexually stimulates their own Sex organ, genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. Stimulation may involve the use of han ...

and then to

urinate Urination is the release of urine from the bladder through the urethra in placental mammals, or through the cloaca in other vertebrates. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, voiding, ure ...

on the magazine pages. Hélène encourages her uninhibited

sex partner Sexual partners are people who engage in sexual activity together. The sexual partners may be in a committed relationship, either on an exclusive basis or not, or engage in the sexual activity on a casual basis. They may be on intimate terms (i ...

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 Sadism () and masochism (), known collectively as sadomasochism ( ) or S&M, is the derivation of pleasure from acts of respectively inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation. The term is named after the Marquis de Sade, a French author known ...

sex many times as a

dominatrix A dominatrix ( ; or dominatrices ), or domme, is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. The BDSM practice is called female dominance, or femdom. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily l ...

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 The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

with a razor while he masturbates, and as he climaxes, she slits her own throat. Paramedics take away her body. Pierre says goodbye to his mother before the

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...

. 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

as Hélène *

Louis Garrel Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in ''The Dreamers (2003 film), The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

as Pierre *

as Hansi * Joana Preiss as Réa * Jean-Baptiste Montagut as Loulou * Dominique Reymond as Marthe *

Olivier Rabourdin Olivier Rabourdin (born 3 March 1959) is a French film actor. He has appeared in more than seventy films since 1985. In 2010, he was nominated for a César Award Cesar or César may refer to: Arts and entertainment * César (film), ''César ...

as Robert * Philippe Duclos as Father

Release

Theatrical

''Ma Mère'' was released in France on 19 May 2004 by Gemini Films, in Portugal on 1 July 2004 by Leopardo Filmes and in Austria on 20 July 2007 by Poool Filmverleih. The film was rated

NC-17 The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion picture ...

upon its release in the United States on 13 May 2005, due to "strong and aberrant sexual content". 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

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 16% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Pretentious, overly perverse and dull."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned the film a score of 35 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Scott Foundas of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called the film "respectable, tightly coiled, but ultimately unrewarding".

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote, "''Ma Mère'' may be ludicrous, but its cast displays a commitment that deserves more than grudging admiration." Jonathan Romney likened the film to

New French Extremity New French Extremity describes a range of French films made at the turn of the 21st century that were considered extreme or transgressive. Films of the New French Extremity are characterized by graphic depictions of violence, especially sexual vio ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ma Mere 2004 films 2004 drama films 2004 LGBTQ-related films 2000s erotic drama films 2000s French films 2000s French-language films 2000s Spanish films Arte France Cinéma films Austrian drama films Austrian LGBTQ-related films BDSM in films Films about mother–son relationships Films about prostitution in Spain Films about widowhood Films based on French novels Films directed by Christophe Honoré Films produced by Paulo Branco Films set in the Canary Islands Films shot in the Canary Islands French erotic drama films French LGBTQ-related films French-language Spanish films Films about incest 2000s LGBTQ-related drama films Portuguese drama films Portuguese LGBTQ-related films Rating controversies in film Spanish erotic drama films Spanish LGBTQ-related films Films based on works by Georges Bataille