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Review

To say that French icon Isabelle Huppert likes to challenge herself — and the audience — is somewhat of an understatement. The great actress/provocateur has come to specialize in tormented, troubled and wildly transgressive women and, just when you think she has gone as far as she can, she takes us even closer to the edge. Arguably more amazing is the number of filmmakers comfortable within Huppert's dangerous, sensual universe: would any modern director pass up the chance to work with her? Christophe Honoré is the latest, and with Ma mère, his adaptation of Georges Bataille's posthumous novel, Huppert adds yet another striking characterization to her singular gallery of screen women.

The movie is virtually an autopsy of the sexual duality of women as both lovers and mothers. Here, however, the two are daringly intertwined as Huppert embarks on a summer of depravity on the sun-kissed Canary Islands with her teenaged son, played by Louis Garrel, who previously starred in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers — and who is clearly Huppert's counterpart in adventurous performances. Coming-of-age movies are a familiar film staple but there hasn't been one quite like Ma mère, which borrows elements from Louis Malle’s now relatively tame Murmur of the Heart and Huppert's controversial film for Michael Haneke, The Piano Teacher. At once sexually charged, romantic and frightening, Ma mère is another brave journey into dark, uncharted areas of the human soul, guided by one of the screen's great actresses. Better buckle up: as Bette Davis would say, it's going to be one bumpy ride, and memorably so. (French with English subtitles)

 -- Joe Baltake