The Baby of Mâcon

Infobox Film
name = The Baby of Mâcon


image_size =
caption = DVD cover
director = Peter Greenaway
producer = Kees Kasander
writer = Peter Greenaway
narrator =
starring = Julia Ormond
Ralph Fiennes
Philip Stone
Jonathan Lacey
Don Henderson
music =
cinematography = Sacha Vierny
editing = Chris Wyatt
distributor =
released = November 11, 1993
runtime = 122 min
country = UK
FRA
GER
BEL
NED
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0106335

"The Baby of Mâcon" is a 1993 film written and directed by Peter Greenaway starring Ralph Fiennes, Julia Ormond and Philip Stone. This is considered by many to be the most controversial film in Peter Greenaway's filmography. Critics, in general, disliked the film, and it never received a proper distribution in North America, playing occasionally in cities like New York and Los Angeles. Some have called it Greenaway's most disturbing work.

Plot summary

A town cursed with barren women and famine is saved by a miracle birth to an old, ugly woman: the Mother. Immediately afterwards, the old woman's Daughter (Julia Ormond) claims to have delivered the baby herself in a virgin birth. She imprisons the Mother and begins to exploit the Baby by selling blessings to the desperate townspeople of Mâcon.

The Church is both suspicious and jealous. The Bishop's Son (Ralph Fiennes), a believer in science and a skeptic, doubts the Daughter. She attempts to convince him that she is indeed a virgin by offering her virginity to him. Before the Bishop's Son is able to consummate with the Daughter, the Baby commands a bull to kill him. The Bishop (Philip Stone) arrives as his son has been gored, and blame for his son's death falls onto the Daughter.

The Bishop takes custody of the Baby and the Church begins exploiting him, and the town's faith, far more than the Daughter. In response, the Daughter quietly suffocates the Baby. The Bishop sentences her to death, but because she is still a virgin, she cannot be killed outright. The Daughter is instead sentenced to be raped 208 times. The Church then dismembers the Baby's body and sells his remains as religious relics to the townspeople. Famine falls once again onto the city of Mâcon.

Interpretations

"The Baby of Mâcon" is a cinematic version of a play, and between the acts the audience see backstage. Throughout, the audience are reminded of the play's audience, and, at play's end, the theatrical actors bow to their audience, before the play's audience bow to the cinema viewer.

Cosimo Medici (Jonathan Lacey), a young and naïve nobleman, who exists outside and inside the play, blurs the line between the narrative folds. The ten minute rape sequence deliberately weaves through each cinematic narrative layer, further blurring the lines. In every narrative layer, exploitation and theatre recur, i.e. theatre's supporting power, in the play, ecclesiastical power, in the film, court power; each propels the narrative. The film can be read as an examination of contemporary narrative and its violent Christian origins.

External links

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