Mama Mia!!

Dude, I don't think anyone would ever film incest like this...

A boy having sex with his mother? That's just disturbing, in so many ways :P

The Ballad of Jack and Rose, which is a lovely movie, visits the theme of father-daughter incest. Camilla Belle would love to have sex with her father, Daniel Day Lewis.

Interesting point. I was surprised myself, watching it..how at times it'd be really uncomfortable to watch and other times..it was really beautifully done. Hats off to Louis Malle's delicate approach for making incest with a minor appear sweet and innocent. I guess for me because Laurent was such a tender and sensitive character, and those are endearing qualities, the viewer sort of loses sight of how wrong it is to misplace those affections on his mother. The males in the film are set up to be mature men even if they're young. The brothers take Laurent to a brothel, the family laughs at the end about him sleeping out somewhere else, etc. While the girls of the same age are portrayed as prudish, waiting for love, being virgins, etc. I think a role reversal of sexes would have been much harder to pull off with the same effect.

Seeing Laurent's first sexual experience in a brothel as very emotionless in contrast to how empassioned and childlike he'd become around his mom sort of compelled me to prefer his pure love for his mother. I don't know what would parallel that in dealing with a teenage girl. Society's views of gender roles would make audiences more easily disturbed I'd think if this was about a young girl and her father.

I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think it really applies to this film. The scene between Laurent and his mother is hardly sexy, inviting or tantalizing; it is a scene of emotional desperation and loneliness. And it's not as if the mother seduces him, if she had the film would be far more controversial and probably would not be nearly as good.

Now, if the roles were reversed, and it was a father-daughter relationship, it would truly depend on how it was handled. Like with this film, the material could have been handled horribly, but because of Malle's brilliant writing and direction the film works. It truly depends on the story and how the filmmakers handle it. I don't think it's that much of a gender issue.



Those pictures of Christ sweaty and bare chested on the cross always made me kind of hot

This is a 1971 French film. I don't have a title right now but I'm sure the kind of film you mention with incest of the opposite sexes actually exists. In the 70s there was even a movement to allow sex with children, backed by plenty of renown people and intellectuals, and actual rapists of children got ridiculous sentences compared to today (something even true in the US, see the Polanski affair).