Ma Mere

Easily one of the most sexually provocative films of recent years, Christophe Honor's adaptation of a controversial novel by Georges Bataille stars Isabelle Huppert as HJlPne, a self-proclaimed hedonist who introduces her Catholic school-trained son (Louis Garrel) to the most extreme forms of pleasure or depravity (depending on one's take), including random sex, sadomasochism, and incest. Although initially ambivalent, the lad responds after HJlPne recruits a young woman to instruct him, and in a paroxysm of lust and defilement, one winds up dead and the other totally debased--all to the strains of the Turtles' “Happy Together.” The point of all this isn't terribly clear: Ma Mére certainly isn't a realistic depiction of human perversity--the surrealistic portrait it paints of the Canary Islands night scene as a degenerate's paradise is proof of that--but whatever the intent, this tale of extreme family dysfunction boasts no deeper resonance. Instead, the film simply wallows in repellent imagery, and while the courage of Huppert and Garrel in taking on these unsympathetic roles is remarkable, the absence of any psychological insight or intellectual enlightenment makes this a tough slog indeed. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)