Ma Mere is about a young boy, Pierre, who goes to spend the summer with his parents at home in the Canary Islands. When his father is killed in an accident, Pierre is left with his mother (played by Isabelle Hubert) who is, in her own words, “A bitch and a slut.” Helen is a libertine woman and her hedonistic lifestyle that induces her to introduce and teach her son about the pleasures of the flesh.

Despite the incestuous implications of that statement, it is never fully realized in the film. While this gives rise to an underlying oedipal complex, the consummation of such an illicit relationship between mother and son is never fulfilled. Instead, Pierre’s mother introduces him to two of her fellow hedonists who undertake the physical aspects of his sexual tutelage.

However, this does not mean Helen goes away but remains a constant force in Pierre’s life both physically and psychologically. In fact, the most disturbing crux of the film is the intimate love Pierre and Helen possess for one another throughout. This disturbance is heightened further by the overt religious overtones embodied and dichotomously enacted through Pierre.

Not only does he go to a Roman Catholic school, but the Felliniesque scenes in which Pierre is on his knees reciting the Catechism in a sand swept desert develop Pierre’s character as it is torn between a life determined by the strict morals of the Church and his life determined by his mother’s own moral laxness. Given the nature of the Catechism, providing the basic tenets of Christianity in a question-and-answer format, these scenes are arguably crucial moments for Pierre where his sinful lifestyle and relationship with his mother clash and he must make a decision about who he is and to which world he truly belongs.

While I was neither able to relate to the mother/son dynamic, nor the oedipal desires presented in the film, I was intrigued by the characters and was interested to see how their story would develop. However, watching the film left me with several questions that remained unanswered and ended up hindering my ability to fully understand and appreciate the film on an intellectual level. For example, from whence came Pierre’s love for his mom? What is it she is really trying to teach him and why?

Moreover, how does the shocking nature of the conclusion provide a resolution to both the relationship and concepts presented? Yet while watching the film these issues did not readily bother me. I believe the reason for that is that as I watched the film I had a strong notion that the film would conclude in a way that did make sense. Overall, I found that I was engaged by the story on a purely superficial level, which allowed me to forgive the gaps in the narrative during the watching of the film. Given time to reflect upon the film however, these questions were never answered and I was left with an empty feeling about the plot. Still, I was intrigued enough by the ideas presented to want to examine them at their source and read the works of Georges Bataille.

Isabelle Hubert seems to be making a career out of these sexually charged roles in controversial films and while I liked The Piano Teacher, a previous film of hers that I reviewed, Ma Mere is a movie that feels very weighted down with ideas that do not fully come together.