Review of The Baby of Mâcon (1993) by Aaron W — 14 May 2009

Holy Crap! Peter Greenaway once again manages to explore areas of cinema that no one else dares to touch, making the audience question their own role. The action of this film takes place on a stage in front of an audience with whom we initially identify with, but as the film progresses we become less and less sure of who we are. A plot unfolds in which a young woman credits herself as the virgin birthmother of her brother in order to elevate her social position to be on par with Mary herself. Child exploitation, bull goring, murder, rape and dismemberment follow and all the while we sit complacent until a few extremely shocking scenes jolt us forward and Greenaway turns the tables on us and even on himself for indeed the creation of theater and film inspire a certain level of complacency. By the end, it's unclear what really happened, but your mind is boggled and your stomach is churned and all in all it was an amazing experience.

Apparently this is the second part of a supposed trilogy, the first being Greenaway's stunning adaptation of "The Tempest" and the third being a still forthcoming film about horseracing or something. While these films share no common threads of plot, they are connected by an unparalleled visual style that combines cinema, painting, and theater. The casts are enormous, and the sets are some of the most impressive that I have ever seen. These are films that really deserve proper DVD releases immediately. Experimental films that don't kowtow to audience approval. Brilliance.