From 3a5504d031bbb2cc1eb80ca2929f2342cdeb727c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Harald Eilertsen Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2020 14:19:19 +0200 Subject: import more old posts. --- .../film/2015-03-13-film-baby-of-macon/index.md | 67 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 67 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/film/2015-03-13-film-baby-of-macon/index.md (limited to 'content/film/2015-03-13-film-baby-of-macon/index.md') diff --git a/content/film/2015-03-13-film-baby-of-macon/index.md b/content/film/2015-03-13-film-baby-of-macon/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2555b9c --- /dev/null +++ b/content/film/2015-03-13-film-baby-of-macon/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ ++++ +title = "Peter Greenaway: The Baby of Mâcon" +lang = "en" + +[taxonomies] +tags = ["film", "Peter Greenaway", "surrealism"] + +[extra] +author = "harald" ++++ + +{% figure(img="baby-of-macon.jpg") %} +_The Baby of Mâcon_ poster. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia. +{% end %} + +There's film, and there's film by Peter Greenaway. + +I've been a fan of this extraordinary film maker from the first time I saw [The +Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover]. So I was sligthly surprised when I found +a new film directed by the master that I didn't know about. [The Baby of Mâcon] +is far from new, but not one of his most well known films. Released in 1993, it +stired some controversy and was [refused distribution] in the USA. That pretty +much sealed its fate as an underground classic. + + + +As usual with Greenaway, the set and the filming is magnificent! The film is +set in a 17th century italian theatre, and we follow a stageplay about +corruption, desception and religious abuse and power. That is, we're woven in +and out of the play itself as well as the interaction with the audience and the +actors themselves. A wealthy prince and his court is in the audience, but also +takes part in the play. Sometimes as a commentators, sometimes directly taking +part in the act itself. Also the line between the actors and their characters +blurr as the story unfolds. All of this wrapped in a magnificent theatre set +filled with religious ornaments, relics and an aura of sacredness. + +> "The men and the women does not play in their beds anymore. Copulation is serious business!" + +While the set is beautiful, the plot is all but. The play takes us to the +village of Mâcon where famine and drought have caused the animals to wither and +the women to become infertile. + +In the midst of this a baby is born by an old and ugly woman. A beautiful child +that gives hope to the vilage that the bad times are ending. + +The child is abused, first by his elder sister which sees the hope and +desperation of the villagers as a source to enrich herself. She claims it's her +child born by virgin birth, and stages him as a divine creature that provides +blessings to the villagers willing to pay the price. And indeed the village +prospers and with it the power of the childs sister. + +The story that unfolds is ugly and meant to challenge the viewer. It's +difficult to feel sympathy with anybody, and the level of corruption permeating +every scene brings as much distaste as the scenery itself brings joy. This is +where Peter Greenaway shines. By the way he portrays the people that could +evoke some symapthy he makes the viewer an accomplice to the tragedy, because +they are so unlikeable. Even the child itself, which at first appears an +innocent victim of his sisters greed is at the end of it in some sort of +control of the entire situation. Far from the innocent instrument from which +others can enrich themselves. + +[The Baby of Mâcon] is a film that can not be described. It has to be experienced. + +[The Baby of Mâcon]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106335/ +[The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097108/ +[refused distribution]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106335/trivia?item=tr0729697 + -- cgit v1.2.3