... as Frank Sinatra said when he introduced his third wife to his mother. What foul-mouthed Dolly Sinatra would have made of this is anyone's guess. It's just another day at the office for Isabelle Huppert whose apparent fascination with sleaze, dysfunction, kinkiness, etc, has yet it seems, to run its course. I bow to no one in my admiration of Huppert in fact I consider her the finest French screen actress currently working if only a whisker in front of Nathalie Baye, Fanny Ardant, Carole Bouquet, Catherine Deneuve, etc, yet it's becoming increasingly difficult to defend her extreme choices role-wise of the last few years (Deux, The Piano Teacher). This is not to say one wants her to remain the innocent Pomme of the Lacemaker indefinitely but perhaps a tad less of the opposite extreme. Louis Garrel is also at home with incest having starred as Theo, the brother, in Gilbert Adair's rip-off of (oops, sorry, homage TO) Cocteau's 'Les Enfants Terribles', "The Dreamers", not a bad track-record for a twenty one year old. Helmer Christophe Honore also writes children's books which is quite a volte face if anyone asks you. The story of Ma Mere is classically simple. Widowed Huppert lives a life in which degeneration would only be a step upward. Son, Garrel is dysfunctional to say the least but then when your mom encourages you to have sex with her friend and gets to watch what can you do. I guess there are two what the unashamed Porn industry would call 'money' scenes; the first where Huppert holds Garrel in her arms as he masturbates and the second, shortly afterwards when Huppert - having slashed her wrists and bled to death in the scene described above - is taken to the mortuary and Garrel is allowed in to say goodbye and chooses to do so by masturbating again beside his mother's corpse. Maybe this is a masterpiece and I just don't get it.
Review of Ma mère
