Ma Mere (2005)
Ma Mere Photos
Movie Info
Cast
as Hélène
as Pierre
as Hansi
as Rea
as Loulou
as Marthe
as Robert
as The Father
as Klaus
as Ian
Critic Reviews for Ma Mere
All Critics (42) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (37) | DVD (4)
A self-satisfied, utterly hollow Bacchanal.
110 minutes of Euro silliness mitigated only by the presence of Huppert and the striking ability of the actors to keep a straight face throughout this mess.
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.
[The climax] involves such a disturbing blend of unhealthy mother-son affection and physical pain that it gives new meaning to the term child -- not to mention audience -- abuse.
It could stand as Exhibit A for why French auteurs are a tough sell to the average seeker of entertainment.
The translation from the highly literary to the literalness of film isn't easy and too often, Ma Mère feels like a parody.
Audience Reviews for Ma Mere
Despite how flat it seems at first, this French film is so provocative and perverse that I'm afraid a lot of people won't get its point, and I love how it explores the vulnerability of Garrel's character through his constant nudity and overflowing sexual desire.
Super Reviewer
European cinema at its best! Producer Paulo Branco has been producing some of the best films and best directors in Europe and this is one of the latest ones. Absolutely amazing, in depicting obsession, incest, dysfunction, love, selfishness, acceptation, pain... It's particularly brilliant how time and space is (not) presented. The ending is terrific and the perfect conclusion to the story. Absolutely superb, a film I think only French could have the audacity to do... I hope European Cinema gets more protection so that we can keep watching these master pieces, otherwise we'll just have to stay dumb watching the main pop corn stream...
Super Reviewer
Pierre is the product of a very unconventional marriage. Both his parents lead promiscuous lives and he spends most of his childhood in a Catholic boarding school. Soon after he returns home, now a young man, his father dies and his mother, undeterred by her husband's death, draws her son into her perverse lifestyle. I'm not sure I'm open-minded enough to fully appreciate Ma Mere. It attempts to titillate by venturing into those dark places where most people feel VERY uncomfortable. If there is a moral to this story it's simply this: "Don't hump your mother". (Frankly, I didn't need an artsy French film to figure that out.)
Super Reviewer
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