Isabelle Huppert is one of the greatest and boldest actresses there is, unafraid of any role she's given. Unfortunately that sometimes means she's given parts that are, quite frankly, beneath her. Her role in Christophe Honore's screen version of Georges Bataille's novel "Ma Mere" is one of them. She plays a hedonistic woman who, after the death of her husband, initiates her adoring young son in her lifestyle. She attacks the part gamely enough as does a frequently nude young Louis Garrel as the son but the film is mostly unpleasant and shallow. It's like a porn movie with the pretensions of seriousness, as if all sex is just a cover for something more profound rather than as an end in itself. Ultimately it reminded of seventies Europorn and it leaves a very sour taste in the mouth.

This is the screen version of Georges Bataille's unfinished novel and after viewing this adaptation one has the feeling that all those involved were just trying to fill in the gaps in the story in this lurid drama. Story is about 17 year old Pierre (Louis Garrel) who comes to visit his parents in the Canaries after being away at boarding school and his father (Philippe Duclos) has purposely kept his son from spending too much time with his mother but unfortunately he dies in an accident shortly after his arrival.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Helene (Isabelle Huppert) wastes no time after her husband's death to initiate her son into her life of debauchery and hedonism and she quickly instructs her girlfriend Rea (Joana Preiss) to have sex with her son in a public place. Pierre has religious convictions and frequently prays when alone but he seems easily drawn into his mothers sordid lifestyle and he falls in love with another one of her playmates. Helene goes out of town for a while but she instructs Hansi (Emma de Caunes) to keep her son company while she's gone and it's during this time that Pierre learns of the sadomasochistic practices that his mother is involved in. When Helene returns her relationship with Pierre turns incestuous and it eventually ends with her performing the ultimate sadomasochistic act on herself with the hope of keeping a self depraving grip on him.

This is only the second film by Christophe Honore and he seems to be fascinated by stories of people who are deeply troubled and have a hard time dealing with certain events that have caused turmoil. The one area of the story that I did find interesting was the role of Garrel as Pierre who is religious and prays and I think the reason that he allowed himself to be so easily brought into his mother's perverse life is so that he could reach a point to where he would be in this self religious transcendent state and actually help him in his faith, but of course the opposite occurred. The main problem I had with this adaptation is that we really really never know where these characters are coming from and why they became who they are. Huppert is one of my favorite actresses of all time and she's fascinating to watch here but she's played these self loathsome characters before (The Piano Player) and this film could have benefited from a more defined role. Still, one has to have respect for a film like this that holds nothing back in terms of graphic nudity and controversial situations and I do wish more filmmakers would be as ambiguous in terms of approaching a project like Honore. The film's intended impact just doesn't come through and that's because of the script's lack of depth but it is a daring attempt and a chance to view the always intoxicating Huppert.

If you like French existentialist movies (which in this case is also a perverse "coming of age" movie), this is one of the better ones; if not, don't bother. The first half is slow and cumbersome with the scenes more like vignettes to reveal the Son's naiveté, while the Mother remains inaccessible until the very end. While the second half remains cumbersome through choppy editing, it is more interesting with the introduction of Hansi and Loulou. Most people seem to get hung up over the Libertine attitudes portrayed through deviant sexual activities, but what I took away was the idea that the psyche of willing participants, and particularly the young or immature, can be damaged by any emotionally charged experience, be it sexual or religious. The struggle is to rise above it. The one scene of particular interest revealed the blurred distinctions between dominant and submissive personalities (Hansi & Loulou), with the Sadist revealed as a Masochist by the emotional damage they were inflicting on themselves through the physical damage inflicted on someone they cared about. The Sadist/Masochist roles are easily reversed as seen through Loulou's comment when he throws himself in the pool in the deleted scene.