Ma mère (2004)

Director:

Christophe Honoré

Writers:

Georges Bataille (novel)
Christophe Honoré (writer)

Release Date:

19 May 2004 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Based on George Bataille's posthumous and controversial novel: When his father dies, a young man is introduced by his attractive, amoral mother to a world of hedonism and depravity.

Plot Keywords:

Topless Women | Spitting | Nude Beach | Exhibitionism | Widow

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Isabelle Huppert	...	Hélène, the Mother
Louis Garrel	...	Pierre, the Son
Emma de Caunes	...	Hansi
Joana Preiss	...	Réa
Jean-Baptiste Montagut	...	Loulou
Dominique Reymond	...	Marthe
Olivier Rabourdin	...	Robert
Philippe Duclos	...	The Father
Pascal Tokatlian	...	Klaus
Théo Hakola	...	Ian
Nuno Lopes	...	The Doctor
Patrick Fanik	...	Eric
Susi Egetenmeier	...	Woman in dunes
Sylvia Johnson	...	Woman of couple

Directed by
Christophe Honoré

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Georges Bataille		novel
Christophe Honoré		writer

Produced by
Paulo Branco	....	producer
Dimitri de Clercq	....	associate producer
Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu	....	co-producer
Gabriele Kranzelbinder	....	co-producer
Bernard-Henri Lévy	....	producer
Stéphane Sorlat	....	associate producer

Cinematography by
Hélène Louvart

Film Editing by
Chantal Hymans

Casting by
Richard Rousseau

Production Design by
Laurent Allaire

Costume Design by
Pierre Canitrot

Makeup Department
Paul de Fisser	....	hair stylist
Delphine Jaffart	....	key makeup artist
Pierre Olivier Persin	....	special makeup effects artist

Production Management
Joaquim Carvalho	....	unit production manager
Laetitia Fèvre	....	production supervisor
Sylvain Monod	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Julie Gouet	....	assistant director
Sylvie Peyre	....	first assistant director
Carlos Conceição	....	trainee assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Yannick Heuveline	....	assistant decorator
Arnaud Roth	....	first assistant decorator

Sound Department
Jean-Claude Brisson	....	sound
Pascal Despres	....	boom operator
Frédéric Fichefet	....	sound editor
Bernhard Maisch	....	sound
Joaquim Pinto	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Hugues Espinasse	....	focus puller
Jean-François Hensgens	....	first assistant camera

Casting Department
Margarida Roberto	....	casting: Portugal

Other crew
Helena Gonçalves	....	production assistant
Maureen Meyer	....	script supervisor

Thanks
Diastème	....	thanks
Gaël Morel	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Madragoa Filmes
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (participation)
• Amour Fou Filmproduktion
• Gémini Films

Distributors

• Alfa Films (2005) (Argentina) (all media)
• Italian International Film (2004) (Italy)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Mongrel Media (2005) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Poool Filmverleih (2007) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Revolver Entertainment (2005) (UK) (all media)
• TLA Releasing (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• TLA Releasing (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Arte  tv
• Canal+  tv

Also Known As:

Meine Mutter (Austria)
My Mother (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated NC-17 for strong and aberrant sexual content.

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

France | Spain | Portugal | Austria

Language:

French | English | German | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (cut) | Australia:R | Canada:18A | Portugal:M/18 | Switzerland:18 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:18 (canton of Vaud) | France:-16 | Italy:VM18 | UK:18 | USA:NC-17 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Canary Islands, Spain

Company:

Madragoa Filmes

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Caché (2005)

Soundtrack:

Happy Together

The Oedipus Complex with Variations from Novelist Georges Bataille

'Ma mère' is a film on the edge. Director Christophe Honoré (who gave us the little jewel 'Closer to Leo') has adapted a tough book by Georges Bataille that explores incest, sadomasochism, love, family dysfunction, and nebulous moral values of conflicted adolescents caught in the web of sexual investigation. It is filled with difficult scenes and ideas and certainly is not a film for the faint of heart or spirit, but at the same time it is a brave film depicting the dissociative state of sexual mind to which we've come after the influences of such thinkers as Bataille, Foucault, Derida, Gide, and others. Christophe Honoré captures an impossible story extremely well on the screen! 17-year-old Pierre (Louis Garrel of 'The Dreamers') is a spiritually challenged adolescent home from his Catholic school to be with his mother Hélène (Isabelle Huppert) whom he idolizes and loves and see his father (Philippe Duclos) who is distant in every sense. Hélène finds it necessary to inform Pierre of her background (her husband raped her when she was very young, causing such anguish that she has become addicted to a life of immorality as a means of escape), a means of warning him of what close association with her could mean. Pierre is blind to all things negative about Hélène and with the news of his father's death, he demands to be included in the wild sexual life of Hélène and her female lover Réa (Joana Preiss). Hélène is sexually attracted to Pierre and elects to include him in her games of voyeurism (watching Pierre during intercourse with Réa, introducing him to the shallow and compulsive Hansi (Emma de Caunes), mutilation, and all forms of debauchery.

The group goes to the sunny islands off Spain where Pierre falls in love with the dangerous Hansi and follows her lead in learning about his mother's strange and dangerous proclivities, sexual acts which include the involvement of young Loulou (Jean-Baptiste Montagut), a young man whom they torture for the sake of sexual satisfaction. All the while that Pierre is being introduced into Hélène's bizarre world he is conflicted by his superego in the form of the Catholic Church: he is seen reciting catechism in the desert surrounded by a silent, nude Greek chorus a la Fellini. Ultimately the 'vacation' is over and Pierre returns home with Hélène and the ultimate incestuous aspect of the Oedipus complex plays out in a completely bizarre and very dark way. To say more would destroy the impact of the ending.

Isabelle Huppert is brilliant as always, her quiet outwardly plain demeanor disguising the profoundly ill soul inside. Likewise Louis Garrel makes the fragile, gullible, needy and severely conflicted Pierre understandable: we may not agree with his choices as he wades through the strange waters of perversion, but we never lose sight of his vulnerability and passionate need to be loved. There is a lot of graphic sex in this film, but this particular story could not be told without it. Christophe Honoré manages this strange tale by letting the story take us into the realm of the unreal and he never for a moment loses our interest.

Even the music scoring is substantive, using Samuel Barber's own setting of his famous 'Adagio for Strings' for the choral 'Agnus Dei', most appropriately heard when Pierre is mentally visiting his spiritual conflicts with his corporal deeds. This is clearly not a film for everyone, but for those who admire the French cinema history of uncovering strange tales, this is a fine example. In French with English subtitles. Grady Harp