The Baby of Macon

1993 comedy

Rating: 17/20

Plot: A miracle baby is exploited, first by a sister and then by a church.

"Be grateful of the music. Most of us die in silence."

This Peter Greenaway movie begs a question: Would you want to be the 208th guy in [redacted]?"

I'm not sure why this movie wasn't a huge box office hit. I mean, there's [redacted], [more redacted], and the whole thing climaxes with a crowd of people [redacted]. If that's not enough to put asses in the seats, I don't know what is!

What Greenaway and his usual cinematographer, the great Sacha Vierny, do with this space is amazing. Essentially, it's a filmed version of a play though the camera is frequently turned on the audience who gleefully become participants in a lot of these shenanigans, including a [redacted]. I was pleasantly surprised when the camera moved underneath the stage to show action down there, but when it eventually moves through the back of the stage or sides to show the immensity of the space in which they're all working, I became pleasantly stunned. A lot of that is shown in these exquisite extended shots, some which I'm not sure how are pulled off. I mean, I was hooked with the opener--a shot of a naked guy with this big hat who kind of ushers in everything with a speech-impeded soliloquy--but after that, I almost anticipated getting a little bored. Greenaway and Vierny consistently sucked me into what was going on in this play-within-a-movie though. I'm a sucker for extended shots, and there are some great ones here, especially the scene where [redacted].

The movie seems to be about regular old human beings' responses to the miraculous. Some try to explain it away, picking it apart by explaining how it's got toes and a penis. Some engage in jealous bickering. Some use it as a moneymaker. Some consider it balm or medicine. Some are inspired to contemplate ambitions. The church's response is the one Greenaway seems most critical of. With the response to "It was a virgin birth" being a hypocritical "Ha! Impossible!", it's clear that Greenaway sees the church as only being happy with the miraculous when it's able to get something from it. You know, like when it can make a buck or two auctioning off vials of the miracle baby's urine or something.

[Redacted paragraph]

Anyway, this is definitely for the more adventurous cinephiles out there. But if you don't mind a little [redacted] or [redacted] in your dark dramatic comedies, this visual feast is probably the film for you. It could make an interesting double feature with mother!.

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