Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

dfle3 If you could give a movie 10/10 for a single scene, this movie would qualify and it would be for the notorious rape scene. The movie is otherwise pretty dull and has delusions of grandeur-in other words, you could describe it as pretentious. It's been many years since I've seen this film, but I do remember coming into the cinema a pico-second after the movie started and feeling hopelessly lost with regard to what was happening in the movie...yes, it's that kind of film.But I do remember the rape scene. This scene is, I think, the greatest scene in all movie history. Now, you may be shocked by this scene, but I think if you can get past this reaction, you will have a feeling of "Enlightenment". I don't want to say too much on this scene, so as not to spoil it for you, but the 'right' way to view this scene, I think, is to imagine you are sitting behind yourself in the cinema watching you watching the movie.There is definitely a 'wrong' way to see this scene, I think. That was magnificently demonstrated when an SBS TV journalist, Helen Vatsikopolous (I think) interviewed the director, Peter Greenaway. Her question was so staggering in its naivete that Greenaway had to talk to her like Jesus to a child.Yes, the movie is disturbing and the rape scene is very confronting. But if you see it for what it REALLY is, it is very rewarding-this is Art at its best.This scene is right up there with other favourite scenes of mine in movies...including a scene in A Clockwork Orange, which I've just posted on today.Again, The Baby of Macon is a rather boring movie, with a 10 out of 10 scene. If the scene makes you angry, it's just a sign of how good its art is.

NateManD "The Baby of Macon" is a very bizarre film. Part play, part period piece and part religious satire. As usual director Peter Greenaway creates a stunning masterpiece, that looks like a painting come to life. Of course the film has disturbing elements and is probably Greenaway's most violent and brutal film. Julia Ormond plays the daughter, a beautiful young women. Her mother who's extremely ugly gives birth to the most beautiful baby. The daughter lies and says the baby is hers and that it was a virgin birth. She profits from the child and has him bless the whole town, even the cow. Both Ray Fiennes and Julia Ormand have very tough roles in this film; including a manger scene seduction. When the town finds out that the daughter is lying and the baby is not hers, they sentence her to be raped by over 100 men. Poor Julia Ormond. Avoid this film if religious or easily shocked. The film does have a dark sense of humor and makes a powerful statement about greed and religion. Although brutal, "The Baby of Macon" is a surreal masterpiece in which reality and stage performance collide. You'll wonder what parts a play and what events are actually happening in the story. This film also includes an amazing film score by Micheal Nyman. If only it would get a DVD release in the US?

Lennart Regebro This movie is about many different things at once, and is played out on several different levels at once. On the surface, the movie is about the setting up of a play about a historical event. Peter Greenaway lets the storyline switch between the play and the historical event, thereby breaking down the barrier between the movies play and the movies reality, and simultaneously breaking down the barrier between the movie and reality, making it near impossible to brush of the events as "Ah, it's just a movie".The way he does this is so skillful, that somebody should invent a Nobel price in directing and give it to him. :)This is a movie lovers movie. If you aren't a cineast and would rather see a guy with two machine guns killing people that spend an hour or two thinking, forget about it. It will only make you confused. And if you are a sensitive person, this movie might make you feel bad for days.

ALETT1984 I first made Peter Greenaway my "acquaintance" through "Prospero's Books," an equally beautiful and equally compelling film. I have also seen some minor pictures of his, like "The Belly of an Architect" and "Drowning by Numbers" which cannot really live up to the image of "The Baby of Macon." Personally, I believe it is Greenaway's best. It is a play, a performance, where shape-shifting is as spontaneous as breathing, indicating that the world is, at it were, a theater, and we the people are merely actors. "The Baby of Macon" is the tale of the exploitation of a child for profit. A beautiful healthy son is born into a poor family, in a time of plague and bareness, in the old Gothic city of Macon. The child is seen as a mere toy, an opportunity for gain, both by his unnamed sister (so beautifully played by Julia Ormond) and the Church. The sacred Child, identified with Christ, brings riches and prosperity and fruitfulness unto the wretched crowds who live in Macon. But his sister's over-weening ambitiousness and the Church's avarice worsen the matters. The Child is immolated and all is lost. The masque is shown on stage in a doric playhouse in 1650 AD, before the viewers whose desire for pious histrionics is forceful. In due time you cannot possibly tell whether this play is acted or merely actual. You cannot tell whether or not you are in a playhouse or in a Cathedral, or whether this wondrous baby represents an earlier Miracle, born by Virgin Birth in a Nativity in the presence of ox and ass. At the play's apogee you cannot be sure who are the players and who are the viewers. This is Peter Greenaway's most shocking film, a somber "miracle-play" of wonders, semi-wonders, and would-be wonders conceived in an epoch of veritable godliness, but performed in a Baroque era of Religiousness when the fancy is starving for various feelings.