The Baby of Mâcon
1992 film by Peter Greenaway
The Baby of Mâcon is a 1993 historical drama film written and directed by Peter Greenaway, and starring Ralph Fiennes, Julia Ormond (in her theatrical debut) and Philip Stone, in his final film appearance.
The film is set in Tuscany during the mid-17th century, in the court of Cosimo III de' Medici as he and his court watch actors perform a parable about a baby born in the town of Mâcon whose inhabitants have been infertile for a generation. The birth of the baby boy is mythologized for various ends, initially because it marks the end of childlessness in a city.
The film premiered at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Because of the nudity and graphic scenes of violence, the film struggled to find distribution. It was not shown in the U.S. until 1997.
Plot
In the mid-17th century, the court of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany gather to watch a play. The town of Mâcon is plagued with a curse that has made every woman barren and brought famine to the land. A woman is in labour signifying the first birth in many years which the midwives initially believe is a false labour due to The Mother's advanced years and general ugliness. However, she does give birth to a healthy baby boy.
“The Baby of Mâcon” enters the record as 1992 film by Peter Greenaway. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Baby, Mâcon and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1170853. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1993 and 1997.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Baby of Mâcon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.