The Baby of Mâcon is a 1993 historical drama film written and directed by Peter Greenaway, and starring Ralph Fiennes, Julia Ormond and Philip Stone, in his final film appearance. The film is set in France 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. Her husband, the Father, immediately seeks to profit by selling potions to cure impotence. However, the elder Daughter (Julia Ormond) of the couple is taken with the child and sees potential to use him to make herself rich. Years later the Daughter successfully passes the child off as her own claiming him as a virgin birth to protect her own virtue. Various precious gifts are given to the Baby of Mâcon and a cult develops around him. The Daughter sells the Child's blessings of fertility in exchange for livestock and riches. She keeps the Mother and the Father imprisoned, along with the Child's wet nurse and a young girl chosen by her to be her father's sexual slave. The Bishop, sensing a threat, considers the Daughter blasphemous and the Bishop's Son (Ralph Fiennes) believes that either she is a virgin and the Child is not hers, or the Child is hers in which case the Daughter is a whore. Frustrated, the Daughter uncages her parents to show the Bishop's Son she is still a virgin but he refuses to believe her mother is the mother of the Child.