ma mère be a film on the edge . director christophe honoré ( who give u the little jewel closer to leo ) have adapt a tough book by george bataille that explore incest and sadomasochism and love and family dysfunction and and nebulous moral value of conflicted adolescent catch in the web of sexual investigation . it be fill with difficult scene and idea and certainly be not a film for the faint of heart or spirit and but at the same time it be a brave film depict the dissociative state of sexual mind to which we have come after the influence of such thinker a bataille and foucault and derida and gide and and others . christophe honoré capture an impossible story extremely well on the screen . 17 year old pierre ( louis garrel of the dreamer ) be a spiritually challenge adolescent home from his catholic school to be with his mother hélène ( isabelle huppert ) whom he idolize and love and see his father ( philippe duclos ) who be distant in every sense . hélène find it necessary to inform pierre of her background ( her husband rap her when she be very young and cause such anguish that she have become addict to a life of immorality a a mean of escape ) and a mean of warn him of what close association with her could mean . pierre be blind to all thing negative about hélène and with the news of his father death and he demand to be include in the wild sexual life of hélène and her female lover réa ( joana preiss ) . hélène be sexually attract to pierre and elect to include him in her game of voyeurism ( watch pierre during intercourse with réa and introduce him to the shallow and compulsive hansi ( emma de caunes ) and mutilation and and all form of debauchery . the group go to the sunny island off spain where pierre fall in love with the dangerous hansi and follow her lead in learn about his mother strange and dangerous proclivity and sexual act which include the involvement of young loulou ( jean baptiste montagut ) and a young man whom they torture for the sake of sexual satisfaction . all the while that pierre be be introduce into hélène bizarre world he be conflict by his superego in the form of the catholic church represent he be see recite catechism in the desert surround by a silent and nude greek chorus a la fellini . ultimately the vacation be over and pierre return home with hélène and the ultimate incestuous aspect of the oedipus complex play out in a completely bizarre and very dark way . to say more would destroy the impact of the end . isabelle huppert be brilliant a always and her quiet outwardly plain demeanor disguise the profoundly ill soul inside . likewise louis garrel make the fragile and gullible and needy and severely conflict pierre understandable represent we may not agree with his choice a he wad through the strange water of perversion and but we never lose sight of his vulnerability and passionate need to be love . there be a lot of graphic sex in this film and but this particular story could not be tell without it . christophe honoré manage this strange tale by let the story take u into the realm of the unreal and he never for a moment lose our interest . even the music scoring be substantive and use samuel barber own setting of his famous adagio for string for the choral agnus dei and most appropriately hear when pierre be mentally visit his spiritual conflict with his corporal deed . this be clearly not a film for everyone and but for those who admire the french cinema history of uncover strange tale and this be a fine example . in french with english subtitle . grady harp .