The Baby of Mâcon (1993)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Peter Greenaway

Writer:

Peter Greenaway (writer)

Release Date:

17 September 1993 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

A movie about the corruption in all levels of society. A baby is born from a supposed-to-be virgin woman...

Plot Keywords:

Baby | Disturbing | Brutality | Bizarre | Childbirth

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Julia Ormond	...	The Daughter
Ralph Fiennes	...	The Bishop's Son
Philip Stone	...	The Bishop
Jonathan Lacey	...	Cosimo Medici
Don Henderson	...	The Father Confessor
Celia Gregory	...	Mother Superior
Jeff Nuttall	...	The Majordomo
Jessica Hynes	...	The First Midwife (as Jessica Stevenson)
Kathryn Hunter	...	The Second Midwife
Gabrielle Reidy	...	The Third Midwife
Frank Egerton	...	The Prompter
Phelim McDermott	...	The First Tutor
Tony Vogel	...	The Father
Tatiana Strauss	...	The First Nun
Louisa Millwood-Haigh	...	The Second Nun

Also Known As:

Das Wunder von Macon (Germany)

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

UK | France | Germany | Belgium | Netherlands

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (cut) (1996) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (1993) | Australia:R | France:-16 | New Zealand:R18 | Portugal:M/18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Germany

Company:

Black Forest Films

Trivia:

The last cinema film of Philip Stone.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea (2004)

Examine the director's aims behind the film not just the content

This is one of (if not THE) most controversial films Peter Greenaway has ever made. Having become something of a media darling, first with "The Draughtsman's Contract", but mainly after "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" and "Prospero's Books" the British media turned against Greenaway when "The Baby of Macon" was released in 1993. This fact is all the more ironic since the central theme of the film is the danger of celebrity and the way in which people are built up so they can be knocked down at a later stage in their careers.

"The Baby of Macon" is not necessarily an easy film to watch and many viewers may not find it to their taste, due in part to the powerful imagery Greenaway utilises within the film. The infamous gang rape of Julia Ormand's character is what everyone comments on, although I think it's very well handled and for the majority of the time the camera focuses on the other characters around the stage (a similar process to the way the camera pans left to a corner of the warehouse when Michael Madsen slices the cop's ear off in Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs") rather than the rape itself.

It seemed to me at the time (as it does now) that the majority of film critics who dismissed the film missed the point of it all. All too often so-called popular film critics merely discuss films in terms of whether they personally enjoy them or not, rather than examining a director's motives and aims in making a particular film and whether those objectives have been achieved. In my opinion, Greenaway does succeed in hitting his marks in "The Baby of Macon" and manages to make some very important points about society in a powerful and challenging film, which will not however leave the viewer with that 'feelgood' feeling that they get from a film like, say, "Titanic".