The Greatest Subversive Film That You’ll Never See

The Baby of Mâcon (1993)

Many years ago a friend asked me if I’d seen any of Peter Greenaway’s films and at that time I was only familiar with The Cook, The Thief, The Wife, and Her Lover; a film I can do without.  However, he specifically recommended The Baby of Mâcon because it’s “awesome, and it has Julia Ormond running around naked and covered in blood!”.  Well, you have to understand that given my level of maturity at the time that was kind of what I wanted to see in a movie.  So some years later, shortly after I’d seen Greenaway’s brilliant take on The Tempest called Prospero’s Books, I came across a copy of  The Baby of Mâcon on VHS at my local library, and I just had to finally see Julia Ormond naked, and of course covered in blood.   Anyway, not for one nanosecond did I imagine in my wildest dreams that this ostensibly offensive exploitation filth I was about the watch was going to in fact be among the most extraordinary movies I have ever seen in my life.  I was mystified and astonished, and soon made to feel numb by this harsh and compelling indictment of human nature within group dynamics.

A quick note about the film’s availability.  Despite having a recent blu-ray release in Sweden there is still little hope of seeing this film get proper distribution in the United States.  Criterion has dusted off old subversive social commentaries like Salò and Sweet Movie, so I still hold out hope that they do the same for The Baby of Mâcon.  However, if your local library is not the proper resource then your in luck, because the internet is ripe with other options, you just need to look intently.  I say that simply because there does not appear to be much of a product to recommend at the present time.

The baby interrupts the consumation.

In summary, a child is born to an old mother in the desolate and starving town of Mâcon.  The women of this town are barren so when the mother has the child her older daughter (Julia Ormond) then claims the child as her own miracle virgin birth, and has her mother imprisoned.  She looks to profit from the town and exploit the child by selling blessings.  The church in Mâcon is envious of her progress but soon the Bishop’s scientist son (Ralph Fiennes) becomes suspicious enough that he questions the daughter’s honesty.  In desperation the daughter offers him her virginity.  The baby then reveals himself and commands a bull to gore the Bishop’s son before he gets to find the truth.  The daughter is blamed for his death and she is sentenced by the church to be raped over 200 times.  The church then exploits the baby and the town’s faith far more than the daughter.  The baby is soon dismembered and his body parts are sold to the town as great relics.  The story is set as though it is within a medieval morality play and the play’s audience is repeatedly shown, and even interacts with the play’s actors at times.  In the final moments of the film the play’s cast coldly bows to its audience and then the audience in turn bows to us, all while the bodies of the daughter and the baby remain dismembered and motionless.

Julia Ormond, right, as the daughter with Philip Stone, left, as the Bishop whose son, played by Ralph Fiennes, lies dead in the foreground.

Perhaps a messiah was born in Mâcon but the corruption of our world saw to it that it just didn’t matter.  Greenaway is a livid and savage yet cerebral filmmaker.  He doesn’t care if you like his movies because he likely despises almost all of us.  The Baby of Mâcon is like a carefully creative means of bombarding our faces with gastric acid.  It is a difficult endeavor to tolerate for countless reasons, not excluding of course the incrimination of the often callous and disgraceful human mind.   This is as strange and unique as it is unsettling, and Greenaway never makes his film’s easy to follow.  It can be quite a trial to appreciate what he is doing, but I will recommend that anyone who wishes to withstand distinguished films regardless of their content make the effort.

My rating is 5 out of 5 stars.

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