The Baby of Mâcon (1993) poster
1993 · drama · art · period

The Baby of Mâcon

Directed by Peter Greenaway2h 2m1993
ElsewhereIMDb6.95kRT38%TMDB6.9113
  • heavy
  • measured
  • extreme
  • surreal
  • bleak
  • cold
Movie DNA

Heavy, measured, extreme drama / art, surreal in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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In 17th-century Tuscany, a church play is performed for the benefit of young aristocrat Cosimo. In the play, a grotesque old woman gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. The child's older sister is quick to exploit the situation, selling blessings from the baby, and even claiming she's the true mother by virgin birth. However, when she attempts to seduce the bishop's son, the Church exacts a terrible revenge.

Our read · The Baby of Mâcon (1993) reads as a heavy, measured, surreal drama · art · period entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of The Baby of Mâcon

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What watching it is actually like.

You want confrontational arthouse that indicts power with staged cruelty and beauty.

ends devastatingit will wreck youmeditativegrips by minute 18attention 5/5feels its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upnuditysexual violencegraphic violencegoreexplicit sexchild perilanimal harm

Skip it tonightSkip if graphic gang rape, child atrocities, or alienating theater will destroy you.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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