Last night I watched the very controversial French film, Ma Mère. It was one of the
few films that I have watched that I thought was both great and terrible at the same time. Subsequently, I learned that Ma Mère is a faithful adaptation of the posthumous controversial, complex, erotic novel by Georges Bataille, who died in 1962. It is difficult to understand this novel in 2013 because the times are very different today. It is even more difficult for Americans to understand a French novel because of the degree to which Puritanism permeates modern American thought. So what is this complex story?
It follows Pierre, an adolescent of seventeen, who adores and idolizes his mother. Unwilling and unable to be loved for something she isn't, she tells Pierre what she's really like: a woman who was raped by her husband at a very early age for whom immorality has since become an addiction. Pierre is undeterred by this and upon the sudden death of his father demands to be initiated into her perverted world. He's ready to go all the way in games that will become more and more dangerous. As attracted to him as to the addictive games, his mother is unable to refuse.
This is a movie that you are either going to hate or find controversial. If you don't mind watching a movie that looks at graphic sex and incest, try Ma Mère. If not, stay away.