Ma Mere [DVD]

This is an exeptional film with a theme rarely tackled in mainstearm cinema - to be highly recommended (in the uncut version)for anyone who wants to learn about, at least to view a "journey", into the perhaps "darker" side of the human mind and perhaps step outside of their comfort zone. The unusual theme is BDSM - bondage, domination, sado-masochism.There are some moral messages here - just observe. Some people are bored with conventional everyday "normal" life by itself and seek excitement in further pleasures. Excitement is pleasure. Not following conventional rules is their sexual excitement. One dominates, one is punished, humiliated - but there is pleasure for both parties, each in their own unique way, for their own reasons.Here are three age groups - the "Mother", her 17 yr old son and the mother's girlfriend (a few years older than the son) with whom she enjoys SM activities with others. Perhaps the "mistake" is made when the mother draws her girlfriend into seducing her son, drawing him into their circle, rather than let him mature in his own way. It is the only mainstream film I know where the lead male is seen performing full-frontal masturbation and urination, but this is not out of place in the plot. Also the nude sunbathers in the sand-dunes include a man with multiple-pierced genitals, which is perhaps unusual.The "moral" message appears to be, that those who find and follow this lifestyle, as they inevitably grow older (the Mother) simply become just as bored with their "unconventional" sexual pleasures and forever seek new excitements (such as watching her son have sex; such as further extremes in whipping a submissive young male "servant"). So - there is no real escape from the ordinariness of life; life is mudane, prosaic. Why not simply accept reality and live without this urge for excesses which are illusions, which quickly fade, for ever seeking renewal? If you do not see life in all its ordinariness as real, when you discover that all roads lead to this same point of human emptiness - to be alone, faced with the reality of your mundane existence - then the truth of this reality could perhaps be too much to bear.

This 2004 French adult drama [with English subtitles] [English title: My Mother] revolves around sexually frustrated but pious, 17 year old Pierre [Louis Garrel] who has just left a Catholic boarding school and is reunited with his parents, but Pierre's father soon dies and his 43-year-old mother, Hélène [Isabelle Huppert] reveals her degenerate and promiscuous ways, insisting that her son accepts her the way she is. She soon introduces him to her Libertine lifestyle and its clear she has depraved plans for him.From the start, you sense there is tension in the family as Pierre instantly believes his father has hit his mother, and the strange looks from the housekeeper at seemingly innocent comments, leads you to believe they are other than innocent. While as the plot develops, we see the mother is actually replicating her own tragic past ‘and sins’ onto her son and is unable to stop herself, as is Hansi [Emma de Caunes] as the mixed up girl. Although quite shocking and repulsive on many levels, this does not set out to be just a controversial movie, the mother/son relationship –and others, all take time to develop and the acting is convincing enough.The single disc offers play, scene selection and special features [2 interviews, trailer, deleted scene, alternative ending]. An obvious 18 rating featuring themes of incest, sado-masochism, some full frontal nudity, including a male urinating, and much talk of an adult sexual nature, this will clearly upset many. There were many loose ends [no pun intended] that were never really explained, the relationship of the housekeepers, why Pierre had a dislike and mistrust of his father etc and obvious flaws, such as the mothers timeline [lose a *] but otherwise this does have some merit.

Ma Mere is a film about the shadow. If you don't know what I'm on about you'll need to do a little research on C G Jung. If you do know what I'm on about, you'll recognize one or two signals - the poo licking incident and the earth-eating incident - both things mum's tell their little ones not to do - but which in this film the mum does! The shadow is basically all the repressed things of childhood that go together to form in the adult a sort of shadow personality, all the things you secretly want to do without even knowing it (please excuse this simplified explanation!)So the 'purpose' of this film is to liberate the viewer from his own repressed childhood desires, desires which because they are repressed can cause so much trouble in later life - low self esteem and all its related problems for example, like anxiety, depression, a feeling of not being loved... The list goes on and on until you arrive at all sorts of extremes, through misogyny, child abuse, all the way to Hitler's attempt to exterminate the Jews.I have given the film five stars for its courage and intelligence in attempting to tackle this fascinating and fundamental subject.Also, it's got Emma de Caunes in it - what's not to like?