The Baby of Mâcon

Greenaway sets his sights on organized religion with this morality play that crucifies the church for its cruelty, exploitation, misogyny, hypocrisy and greed.  The story concerns a baby born in the 17th century, amidst an apparent epidemic of sterility.  The child’s older sister claims motherhood for herself, and uses the allegedly miraculous virgin birth for economic gain.  But after a grotesque accident/divine intervention, the priesthood takes over the exploitation act, and exacts a vicious vengeance.

Meanwhile, the whole thing takes place as an elaborate stage production, with audience members visible, chiming in, or even being invited to participate.  At first this seemed like an intriguing but kind of pointless distancing device.  But then comes the scene.  If you’ve seen it, you know what I mean, and if you haven’t, it’s better that you not know.  But it’s a fairly brilliant way of upsetting the audience/actor/participant dynamic.  Suddenly you are simultaneously doubly removed from the action, and fully immersed in the horror of it.  It’s not just a play any longer, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

Like many of Greenaway’s films, it can be rather long-winded.  Some points are belabored for longer than necessary, and as a whole it’s kind of one-note.  But the execution shows his usual extreme attention to detail.  The sets are grand to say the least, and lavishly appointed with period items and assorted objects of symbolism.  Sacha Vierny is on board as cinematographer once again, and the elaborate frames burst with splashes of purity white and blood red.  It is lacking the usual distinctive Michael Nyman score, but it would probably feel inappropriate in this setting anyway.  The performances by Julia Ormond, Ralph Fiennes and Kubrick regular Philip Stone are all quite fine, at least insofar as they seem committed to the Greenaway style (acting in his films can often be hard to judge).

I’ve had some transcendent experiences with Greenaway.  This wasn’t one of them, although in general I liked it and there were definitely some exquisite moments.  It’s certainly one to think about, and will probably be hard to forget.  Rating: Very Good

IMDb