monsieurchariot A 17 year old student comes to visit his beautiful mother (Isabelle Huppert) and father in their luxurious home on the Canary Islands. There is tension all around: we soon realize that the boy has been raised by his grandmother, in Catholic schools, seemingly due to obscure problems in his parents' marriage.Suddenly, the father dies in an accident on a business trip. Neither the boy, nor his mother appear to have any feelings for him whatsoever. She tells him to clear the father's things from his office, and to throw it all out unless he finds something of interest. The boy uncovers a vast collection of pornography, which catapults him into an erotic swoon. He furiously urinates on the office furniture, then collapses in fervent prayer.Lounging about the pool and in various states of undress, Huppert needles her son for being a religious stick-in-the-mud, for not taking part in the pleasures of life in the resort town. Wearing tight, revealing dresses, she goes out nightly to the local clubs, and finally concedes to bring the boy along. Slowly, disturbingly, she reveals herself to her son as an intensely sybaritic narcissist, in the manner that only French women, in particular Huppert, can be. Not only that, she is utterly and unrepentantly sexually depraved, and her depravity is shown to be the reason why her son was taken away from her. But he is back, and he is in love with her. She proceeds to take him down a path that can be described as the raping of an innocent.Ma mère is based on a work by the pessimistic Georges Bataille, the "metaphysician of evil." The story also very much brought to mind The Sexual Life of Catherine M, by French art critic Catherine Millet, and various novels by Michel Houellebecq. Definitely a Passolini influence as well. There is much nudity, and various sexual acts are presented. It has been widely panned as over-the-top, a Euro conceit, and I can assure you the film will not be everyone's cup of tea. But being somewhat familiar with the, er... territory, I was fascinated with Huppert's performance, her desire to elucidate the blank, erotic radiance of a remorseless, lonely hedonist.

Martin Bradley Isabelle Huppert is one of the greatest and boldest actresses there is, unafraid of any role she's given. Unfortunately that sometimes means she's given parts that are, quite frankly, beneath her. Her role in Christophe Honore's screen version of Georges Bataille's novel "Ma Mere" is one of them. She plays a hedonistic woman who, after the death of her husband, initiates her adoring young son in her lifestyle. She attacks the part gamely enough as does a frequently nude young Louis Garrel as the son but the film is mostly unpleasant and shallow. It's like a porn movie with the pretensions of seriousness, as if all sex is just a cover for something more profound rather than as an end in itself. Ultimately it reminded of seventies Europorn and it leaves a very sour taste in the mouth.

donwc1996 I rarely walk out of films but I walked out of this one. It gets off to a great start. It's set in the Canary Islands, one of the most beautiful places in the world and the cast is just as beautiful. One of France's top stars heads the stellar cast and the story is intriguing and immediately gripped me. But, alas, about 45 minutes into the film the most disgusting scene occurred in a cab with Ma Mere, the Mother, her hunky teenage son and Mother's best girlfriend. The son asks the girlfriend for a kiss and she assures him that the only place she will kiss him is on his ass and then makes a comment about how poopy his butt is. Then, as if that isn't enough, she proceeds to demand he bend over and drop his pants so she can insert her finger up his ass in order for her and Ma Mere to sniff it. This is when I walked, telling my film bud he was on his own and true to form the poor guy sat through the rest of this sordid mess until the equally disgusting finish. How one of France's most beautiful and talented actresses got talked into this sewer is beyond me but the poor girl must have just been dumped by her lover and been in an awful state of depression to even consider being involved in a loathsome project such as this.

manueljoaoandrade As a great admirer of Isabell Huppert and her ego-free attitude towards her profession it is sad to see her in such a snooze inducing piece of sleazy art house load of bullocks that this film turns out to be. Interesting enough is not even the idea that lacks any sense, it is the execution, Christopher Honore may not be the worst film director in the world but Haneke he's not. A controversial subject doesn't need to look ugly for audiences to connect on the contrary many directors already proved that point. Honore seems to disagree and as such created one of the most visually ugly films since Catherine Breillat's Romance. Poor choices in cinematography and editing adds confusion to the ugliness of it all. On the other hand Cheap philosophy wrapped in the most unerotic sex scenes since the birth of cinema makes this less exciting then watching 110 minutes of pure white on screen. The only things that saves it from a failure of epic proportions are the actors, but neither Huppert's Piano Teacher influenced performance nor unf inspiring ladies man Louis Garrel manage to give to its viewers the sense of fun and pleasure that they seem to been having on screen. In the end it tries to be what it is not and ends up being nothing but a silly film with a even sillier ending that is only there for reasons of massive plot contrivance.