To the top of my Netflix queue you go

[TVC15]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baby_of_M%C3%A2con

A town cursed with barren women and famine is saved by a miracle birth to an old, ugly woman: the Mother. Immediately afterwards, the old woman's Daughter (Julia Ormond) claims to have delivered the baby herself in a virgin birth. She imprisons the Mother and begins to exploit the Baby by selling blessings to the desperate townspeople of Mâcon.

The Church is both suspicious and jealous. The Bishop's Son (Ralph Fiennes), a believer in science and a skeptic, doubts the Daughter. She attempts to convince him that she is indeed a virgin by offering her virginity to him. Before the Bishop's Son is able to consummate with the Daughter, the Baby commands a bull to kill him. The Bishop (Philip Stone) arrives as his son has been gored, and blame for his son's death falls onto the Daughter.

The Bishop takes custody of the Baby and the Church begins exploiting him, and the town's faith, far more than the Daughter. In response, the Daughter quietly suffocates the Baby. The Bishop sentences her to death, but because she is still a virgin, she cannot be killed outright. The Daughter is instead sentenced to be raped 208 times. The Church then dismembers the Baby's body and sells his remains as religious relics to the townspeople. Famine falls once again onto the city of Mâcon.

I'd better not jerk off for a few days before watching this one.

[demi]

This isnt streamable is it? Sounds awesome... maybe a torrent out there

[TVC15]

Sadly it's not on video, and it was never formally released in the US due to controversy of some sort.  I will have to steal it.  To satisfy my lord god Peter Greenaway, I have added this to the top of my Netflix queue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Zed_%26_Two_Noughts

The plot centres on twin brothers, Oswald and Oliver Deuce, whose wives are killed in a car accident. The brothers enter a relationship with Alba Bewick, the driver of the car, who lost one of her legs in the accident. In an attempt to fathom the reason for their wives' death they become obsessed with decay, making numerous time-lapse films of decaying animals. Culminating in the ultimate experiment, A Zed & Two Noughts is not one of Greenaway's more accessible works.

So I'm bummed that The Baby of Macon is not on DVD in the US, but the good news is that this means I can steal it guilt-free and watch it tonight.  I just hope that I have enough semen to give the proceedings the level of decorum they so obviously deserve.

The list of plot keywords for The Baby of Macon at IMDB is like a fetish list for me:
Child Murder
Controversy
Child Murderess
Rape
Male Frontal Nudity
Bishop
Manger
Childbirth
Infant Nudity
Servant
Baby
Obese Woman
Graphic Rape
Blood
Dead Boy
Cannibalism
Female Frontal Nudity
Breaking The Fourth Wall
Black Comedy
Religion
Deacon
Play
Male Nudity
Church
Hypocrisy
Cow
Death
Brutality
Child Nudity
Female Nudity
Virginity
Priest
Surrealism
Seduction
Satire
Nudity
Independent Film

[Joe Molotov]

Misleading title, it's not on Netflix or on DVD at all in the US anyway. 

Sounds wild, though. How come I've never heard of it?

[TVC15]

Sounds wild, though. How come I've never heard of it?

Believe it or not, the movie will be very artfully done.  It's not going to be like Pink Flamingos or Kids or something.  Peter Greenaway is like a capital A artist, and he'll have some sort of point.  He definitely does get off on being transgressive to some degree, though.

[Joe Molotov]

So what's the verdict? Best movie since The Day the Clown Cried?

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

the only Greenaway film I've seen was the tremendously awesome The Cook, The Wife, The Thief, and her Lover ("the hell, this is at Blockbuster?  Better watch before it gets pulled."), what would be an appropriate film to follow that with?  And yes, I have Netflix now.

[TVC15]

So what's the verdict? Best movie since The Day the Clown Cried?

It's probably one of the strangest movies I've seen, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that wasn't already a Greenaway fan, since on top of being pretty insane, it is very obviously a really indulgent Peter Greenaway film.  I loved it.

the only Greenaway film I've seen was the tremendously awesome The Cook, The Wife, The Thief, and her Lover ("the hell, this is at Blockbuster?  Better watch before it gets pulled."), what would be an appropriate film to follow that with?  And yes, I have Netflix now.

I think going in chronological order starting with The Draughtsman's Contract is probably the best.  His movies get weirder as time passes.  The Draughtsman's Contract is basically a slightly weird, heady period piece.  It's pretty awesome and it was just reissued on video in the US about a year ago.

[Van Cruncheon]

i really dug the draughtsman's contract, too. the wife and i discussed it for days, which is pretty rare.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I went to go see The Pillow Book with my girlfriend in the theater and they almost didn't let me in because I was only 17 ;_;

[TVC15]

is there any excrement eating in that one?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

no, just Ewan McGregor's schlong, but what movie DOESN'T have that these days

it was mostly calligraphy fetish based

[TVC15]

Sounds like that one might need to go on the netflix queue.