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Movies / On DVD / Ma Mere
Ma Mere

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Ma Mere (2005)

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Reviews Counted:41

Fresh:5

Rotten:36

Average Rating:3.7/10

Consensus: Pretentious, overly perverse and dull.

Rated: NC-17 [See Full Rating] for strong and aberrant sexual content.

Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:May 13, 2005 Limited

Synopsis: Adapted from the provocative novel by transgressive postmodern intellectual and author Georges Bataille, MA MERE is set in the visually lush and spiritually empty tourist trap of the Canary... Adapted from the provocative novel by transgressive postmodern intellectual and author Georges Bataille, MA MERE is set in the visually lush and spiritually empty tourist trap of the Canary Islands. Louis Garrel, projecting the same European sultriness that was perfectly suited to Bertolucci's more warmly erotic film THE DREAMERS, plays Pierre, a sulking and antisocial teenager, willfully indifferent to being on summer vacation with his parents. When his wayward father suddenly dies, his mother Helene (Isabelle Huppert), forces him into her universe of illicit sex--a simultaneously ugly and playful realm inhabited by Gallic sophisticates engaging in orgies and bondage. Pierre, a devout Catholic, is resistant at first--to the point of Catholic guilt-induced attacks of sobbing and hyperventilation. But after fulfilling experiences with Helene's male and female playmates, Pierre obsessively pursues the sexual attention of his own mother, and a disturbing quest toward consummation of the attraction between mere and fils is undertaken. Star Isabelle Huppert's role as Helene is a perfect follow-up to her award-winning turn in the equally shocking LA PIANISTE, which featured the French fatale engaging in illicit acts with both a young male student and her own controlling, elderly mother. With her just barely constrained and visibly volatile sexual energy, the actress has become known as the "go-to girl" for roles that transcend sexual and social taboos and explore the dark and violent side of erotic desire. Her overpowering presence in MA MERE, as all great performances do, make the viewer wonder just how blurry the boundaries between actress and role have become. [More]

Starring: Louis Garrel, Isabelle Huppert, Francois Montagut, Dominique Reymond

Starring: Louis Garrel, Isabelle Huppert, Francois Montagut, Dominique Reymond

Director: Christophe Honoré

Director: Christophe Honoré
Screenwriter: Christophe Honoré
Studio: TLA Releasing

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Release:

Oct 18, 2005

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Reviews for Ma Mere

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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Most of the screenplay consists of meandering and inebriated characters talking just as high-falutin'.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
02/26/07
Kevin Allison
Kevin Allison
Film Journal International

...a dispirited affair and often feels like a parody — a decidedly self-serious one — of one of Bertolucci or Pasolini’s boundary-pushing offerings from the ‘70s

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Alternative | comment Comment
05/14/05
Jay Antani
Jay Antani
Los Angeles Alternative

downright silly and pretentious

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
05/13/05
Chris Barsanti
Chris Barsanti
Filmcritic.com

Probably isn't for anyone not interested in the darkest corners of the human psyche, where sexual annihilation is the only response to a fallen world, where all moral bets are off, and where a boy's worst friend is his mother.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
07/08/05
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Glazed-over looks, naked flesh, inane philosophizing, and sand dunes announce that we’re in Antonioni-land, circa Zabriskie Point.

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
07/31/05
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

Ma mère could easily be mistaken for the latest anhedonic embarrassment out of Canada

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
07/15/05
Bill Chambers
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central

For all the posturing that sexually politicized Americans use to praise the French and their liberating attitudes towards funtime, why is it that their most sexually charged films do their best to sicken rather than explore or educate?

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
04/09/05
Erik Childress
Erik Childress
eFilmCritic.com

This is a bold and difficult film, examining intensely personal issues and letting us in as voyeurs.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
05/06/05
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

While attempting to be a bold examination of incest, sadomasochism and anality, Honore's adaptation of the Bataille novel instead becomes ludicrous indulgence.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
05/22/05
Kevin Courrier
Kevin Courrier
Boxoffice Magazine

This is one movie I wouldn't want to take my mother to see (or even tell her that I saw).

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
06/10/05
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

Garrel's performance here reveals Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers for the featherweight fantasy that it was. Ma Mère may appear grungier on the surface, but its themes run far deeper.

Full Review Source: Premiere Magazine | comment Comment
05/26/05
Peter Debruge
Peter Debruge
Premiere Magazine

Respectable, tightly coiled, but ultimately unrewarding.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
06/10/05
Scott Foundas
Scott Foundas
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Honore never gets beneath these characters' sunburned skins, and well before the end, the film tips irretrievably over into the realm of absurdity.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
05/12/05
Scott Foundas
Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly
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It winds up making incest look absurdly swank.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
05/19/05
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Huppert doesn't turn this object d'cypher role into exactly the sort of gay-son-as-Oedipus tribute that Dan Harris flubbed with last year's Imaginary Heroes.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
05/12/05
Eric Henderson
Eric Henderson
Slant Magazine

The drab bondage buffs in Ma Mere are so sick of life and sick of each other that we get sick of them way before the mother makes good on her threats and turns her son into her Oedi-pal.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
06/16/05
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Ma Mere may be ludicrous, but its cast displays a commitment that deserves more than grudging admiration.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/12/05
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
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It could stand as Exhibit A for why French auteurs are a tough sell to the average seeker of entertainment.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
07/01/05
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Porn masquerades as art.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
04/30/05
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

This sexually messy, religiously infused film is a perfect example of the dregs of European cinema.

Full Review Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel | comment Comment
08/11/05
Laura Kelly
Laura Kelly
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
 
 
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