Customer Reviews

Peter Greenaway: The Baby Of Macon

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Probably because of its graphic & offensive nature upon a cursory viewing, Peter Greenaway's BABY OF MACON is rarely shown in the US and not available on video. Fortunately, a handsome Parisian(in English) edition of the script is available. On the surface, the story is one of the spoiled Italian aristocrat Cosimo De Medici watching a play, concerning a woman pretending to virgin birth to exploit a "miracle baby" for fame & profit. Throughout, de Medici, not quite understanding it isn't real, interferes in the action, ultimately with horrifying consequences as the play and reality lose all division. But anyone reading will find several layers of meaning atop one another, and one will be furious one can't see the film readily. Highly recommended.--John Roberson

This film is bloody, gory, salacious and utterly dazzling.

Scholars of the middle ages will recognize a dirty, unkept world where there was no clear divide between religion and sexuality. We as moderns have largely sanitized that world in the last three hundred years: we forget that cathedrals were used not only as places of worship but also as animal pens, trade fairs, and sites of political trial and execution. We have cut ourselves off from the dark and often blood-drenched history of the church and our culture, and this film brings us sqaurely in the face of aspect our history that we might prefer not to acknowledge.

If you have a weak stomach or if you prefer not to ask the hard questions about where we as moderns have come from, this film is definitely not for you. If you have a curious spirit and if you believe that we learn from having our preconceptions challenged or altered, then you will benefit from this daring and difficult vision of our not so recent past.

i have not read the book bought have seen the video sick sick sic