The Baby of Mâcon
Short description
Set in 17th-century Mâcon during a period of plague and infertility, this drama follows the birth of a beautiful boy to an elderly, unattractive woman. The child is viewed as a miracle, and his older sister seeks to exploit the situation for wealth and status. She sells blessings and claims to be the child's mother through a virgin birth. However, her attempts to seduce the son of the bishop lead to a violent retaliation by the Church. The narrative unfolds as a religious play performed for a young aristocrat, with the lines between the theatrical performance and reality gradually blurring.
Directed and written by Peter Greenaway, the film follows his previous works, The Draughtsman's Contract and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. The cast includes Julia Ormond, Ralph Fiennes, Philip Stone, Jonathan Lacey, Don Henderson, and Celia Gregory, with a total of 33 credited actors. The production was a collaboration between companies from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands Antilles. On TMDB, the film holds a rating of 6.8/10 based on 117 votes. Film critics gave the movie a higher rating of 7.3/10 from 8 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- According to director Peter Greenaway, the idea for the film was sparked by the ban in the UK of a Benetton advertising poster depicting a newborn covered in blood with an uncut umbilical cord. Greenaway was outraged by the hypocrisy of banning posters in a country where murders and rapes are streamed in an endless flow on television and the big screen.
- Distributors in the US refused to deal with a film on such a controversial topic. "The Maconochie's Child" (1993) officially does not exist in the US in any format.
- Initially, director Peter Greenaway wanted to film some scenes in the famous Cologne Cathedral; however, a few days before filming was to begin, his own film "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989) aired on German television, and church authorities immediately banned Greenaway from filming in the cathedral. As a result, these scenes were filmed in the Oude Kerk, a Gothic church in Amsterdam and the oldest surviving structure in the Dutch capital.
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