Featured Audience Ratings

• Cassandra M

  
  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… More
  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...

• Anthony L

  
  French Existentialism. It does my head in! No really, this film is not as clever or as artistic as it thinks it is. Loosely based on a novel by Georges Bataille and ripped to pieces by Christophe Honoré who totally misses the point or at least doesn't understand the meaning (He… More
  French Existentialism. It does my head in! No really, this film is not as clever or as artistic as it thinks it is. Loosely based on a novel by Georges Bataille and ripped to pieces by Christophe Honoré who totally misses the point or at least doesn't understand the meaning (He also thinks by ripping off great directors like Eric Rohmer & Truffaut he is as good as them). This is awkward and unpleasant viewing. So far up its own arse its untrue but if you like the thought of your mum sticking a finger up your arse and making you lick it off then watching you have sex like a horse in a shopping centre, then this film is right up your street. I just hope you don't live down mine! Extra star for the good acting, read the book instead!

• Randy T

  
  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,… More
  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 <i>Ma Mere</i>. 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.)

• Walter M

  
  [font=Century Gothic]"Ma Mere" starts out with Pierre(Louis Garrel) arriving at the vacation home of his parents in the Canary Islands. Soon after, his father has to return home to[/font] France on business where he is killed in an accident. Distraught, Pierre withdraws… More
  [font=Century Gothic]"Ma Mere" starts out with Pierre(Louis Garrel) arriving at the vacation home of his parents in the Canary Islands. Soon after, his father has to return home to[/font] France on business where he is killed in an accident. Distraught, Pierre withdraws almost completely while his mother, Helene(Isabelle Huppert), hardly misses a beat. In fact, she gives him the key to his father's study before she heads out to party. Inside the study, Pierre finds a rather large stash of pornography. At first, he masturbates, then urinates all over it. Later, while he is nude sunbathing, Helene approaches him and tells him that it is time he got a first hand look at her hedonist ways, starting out with an introduction to her friend, Rea(Joana Preiss), who is even wilder than she is... "Ma Mere" is a sexually explicit and provocative movie about intimacy and sex, and how dissimilar they really are. Helene has sex in copious amounts, but it is intimacy and love that Pierre desperately needs.(Pierre was raised by his grandparents since apparently Helene is so carefree as to be incapable of raising a child.) And the scenic locations are very well photographed.

• Daniel P

  
  Pretty disturbing, controversial, but stunningly acted French film. Pierre, fresh from boarding school, returns home to his somewhat estranged mother. After learning about the death of his father in a car crash, Pierre soon enters a world of alcohol drugs and sex. What follows is… More
  Pretty disturbing, controversial, but stunningly acted French film. Pierre, fresh from boarding school, returns home to his somewhat estranged mother. After learning about the death of his father in a car crash, Pierre soon enters a world of alcohol drugs and sex. What follows is something of a numbing experience: full frontal nudity, strong sex scenes and incest are all thrown up on screen. Had it not been for the powerful performances from Louis Garrel and Isabelle Huppert and some interesting camerawork, I may have lost interest in the whole thing (despite the subject matter), especially considering its inordinate running time.

• Sunil J

  
  SPOILER ALERT - I really thought I knew what I was getting with this movie. I knew there was a sexually confused son, back from boarding school who has an odd relationship with his mother. And I knew it was NC-17. And I actually thought most of the movie was pretty B/B- worthy. BUT… More
  SPOILER ALERT - I really thought I knew what I was getting with this movie. I knew there was a sexually confused son, back from boarding school who has an odd relationship with his mother. And I knew it was NC-17. And I actually thought most of the movie was pretty B/B- worthy. BUT the last 20 minutes or so goes from unconventional, to uncomfortable, to just plain FUCKED Up. And just when I thought it was over, the son jerks off to his dead mom.

• Dimitris S

  
  It lacks a proper and developing potion so it can be revived as a unique work of art.Honore's magic couldn't possibly advance the logic of this project to an erotic masterpiece (perhaps as a commentary to family ties..),Bataille I bet wasn't too insulted by the result,I… More
  It lacks a proper and developing potion so it can be revived as a unique work of art.Honore's magic couldn't possibly advance the logic of this project to an erotic masterpiece (perhaps as a commentary to family ties..),Bataille I bet wasn't too insulted by the result,I 'm feeling here though that there wasn't much passion/lust for depravity...

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