Ma Mère
Ma Mère | |
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Arte France Cinéma | |
Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | French |
Budget | €2.7 million[1] |
Box office | $1.5 million[2] |
Ma Mère (English: My Mother) is a 2004
An international co-production of France, Portugal, Spain and Austria,[3][4] the film was shot on location on the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. Its dialogue is almost entirely in French with brief segments in Spanish, German and English. The film was released in France on 19 May 2004 by Gemini Films, in Portugal on 1 July 2004 by Leopardo Filmes and in Austria on 20 July 2007 by Poool Filmverleih.
Plot
Seventeen-year-old Pierre has recently left a
Hélène encourages her uninhibited
Afterwards, Hélène includes her son in an orgy with her friends, including Hansi. After the orgy, Hélène decides that she must leave her son to travel. While saying goodbye to Pierre, she implies that something taboo has happened between them and that she must leave to prevent it from happening again.
Upon Hélène's departure, Hansi enters Pierre's life as a friend. She admits befriending Pierre at Hélène's encouragement but denies receiving a fee from her. Their friendship blossoms into a tender romance and they both fall in love. During their relationship, Hansi reveals that she has participated in sado-masochistic sex many times as a dominatrix with her friend Loulou as the willing masochist. She adds Hélène arranged these encounters as sexual exhibitions for tourists.
Hélène returns home with Réa. Upon arriving, she finds her son and Hansi socializing at a bar near the villa. Hélène and Pierre greet each other and chat while gazing into each other's eyes, with Hansi looking on jealously. Hélène invites her son to sleep with her. He agrees.
Hélène and Pierre enter the house's wine cellar. Hélène asks her son to cut her abdomen with a razor while he masturbates, and as he climaxes, she slits her own throat. Paramedics take away her body. Pierre says goodbye to his mother before the cremation. He enters the room where she lies in state and masturbates, exclaiming that he does not want to die as she is carried out.
Cast
- Isabelle Huppert as Hélène
- Louis Garrel as Pierre
- Emma de Caunes as Hansi
- Joana Preiss as Réa
- Jean-Baptiste Montagut as Loulou
- Dominique Reymond as Marthe
- Olivier Rabourdin as Robert
- Philippe Duclos as Father
Release
Theatrical
Ma Mère was released in France on 19 May 2004 by Gemini Films, in Portugal on 1 July 2004 by Leopardo Filmes and in Austria on 20 July 2007 by Poool Filmverleih.
Home media
An edited
Reception
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2017) |
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 16% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Pretentious, overly perverse and dull."[7]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 35 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[8]
Scott Foundas of Variety called the film "respectable, tightly coiled, but ultimately unrewarding".[9] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "Ma Mère may be ludicrous, but its cast displays a commitment that deserves more than grudging admiration."[6]
Jonathan Romney likened the film to
See also
- Isabelle Huppert on screen and stage
- List of NC-17 rated films
- List of French films of 2004
References
- ^ "Ma mère". JP's Box-Office (in French).
- ^ "Ma mère (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
- Lumiere. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
- ^ a b "My Mother de Christophe Honoré (2003)". Unifrance. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
- ^ "Ma mère". AlloCiné (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2023.
- ^ a b Holden, Stephen (13 May 2005). "Ma Mère". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ "My Mother". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
- ^ "My Mother Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ Foundas, Scott (23 June 2004). "Ma Mere". Variety. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
- ^ Romney, Jonathan (12 September 2004). "Le sex and violence". The Independent. Retrieved 26 August 2023.