Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Ma Mère

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 94 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Foreign
Written by:
Christophe Honoré
Georges Bataille (novel)
Directed by: Christophe Honoré
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 13, 2005
DVD: October 18, 2005
Running Time: 110 minutes, Color
Origin: France / Portugal / Austria / Spain
Summary
RATING: NC-17 for strong and aberrant sexual content
Starring Louis Garrel, Isabelle Huppert, Emma de Caunes, Joana Preiss, Jean-Baptiste Montagut, Philippe Duclos, Dominique Reymond, and Olivier Rabourdin
A disturbing relationship develops between an attractive widow (Huppert) and her teenage son (Garrel).
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Boston Globe Ty Burr
Isn't for the kiddies. It probably isn't for anyone not interested in the darkest corners of the human psyche.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Ma Mere, with its sun-drenched sense of dread and band of reckless, unlikable characters, isn't very good, but that doesn't stop the actors -- especially the intrepid Huppert -- from going all the way.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
It's pretentious highbrow trash, but as far as that goes it works pretty well.
Read Full Review >Variety Scott Foundas
Director Christophe Honore's respectable, tightly coiled, but ultimately unrewarding adaptation of Georges Bataille's posthumous novel.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Based on a novel by French provocateur Georges Bataille, an important thinker whose fiction rarely translates into good cinema.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
For all its shocking content, it remains a rather conventional psychological portrait of Oedipal attraction taken to a disturbing extreme.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Ma Mère, while less prudish than Catherine Breillat's dour deconstructions of sex, is also less competent. It winds up making incest look absurdly swank.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
Yet another stylish exercise in depravity in which Huppert floats through the sordid proceedings in a calm haze. If only the film she inhabits was as sexy as it aspires to be.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Melissa Levine
At first, Ma Mère is shocking and even alluring, but it doesn't take long for the conceit to wear thin, especially since the characters so rarely act as recognizable humans.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Ma Mère may be ludicrous, but its cast displays a commitment that deserves more than grudging admiration.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves
If you are at all squeamish about incest and/or prefer sex scenes without violent undertones, you should avoid this movie.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
This tale of disaffected sexual depravity is practically a parody of the worst of French filmmaking.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Honoré never gets beneath these characters' sunburned skins, and well before the end, the film tips irretrievably over into the realm of absurdity.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
Huppert is wonderful, as usual, and she's to be congratulated for taking this daring role. But, alas, even she can't save Ma Mere.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
110 minutes of Euro silliness mitigated only by the presence of Huppert and the striking ability of the actors to keep a straight face throughout this mess.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Involves such a disturbing blend of unhealthy mother-son affection and physical pain that it gives new meaning to the term child -- not to mention audience -- abuse.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 94 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Rob gave it a6:
This movie fails on almost every level except for 2 heavily important ones: the acting, and the depiction of how one wreckles soul can destroy the lives and steal the innocence of everybody she comes into contact with.
Ughi Y. gave it a10:
I liked the film. Best I've seen in a while. Nothing special. But, I thought Louis Garrel was amazing. Good cinematography. A little sexual but you know. One of the best French films in a while. The NC-17 rating was so cool!
Prudence K. gave it a10:
Louis Garrel and Isabelle Huppert both deserve Oscar for their chilling performances! Incredible film. The best film I've ever seen of all time.
Moi A. gave it a0:
All I can say is......YUCK!!!!!
Mandy gave it a1:
AWFUL. sick, perverse. i walks out after an hour and a half and i'm shocked that i stayed that long. the plot was weak, so the gratuitous, violent, sexual scenes grew to be boring. yes, they were disturbing, but there was no plot to back them.
Oscar P. gave it a2:
One of the worst french films i have seen in the cinema. I. Huppert is the best of this.
