THE LAST MISTRESS

SHOWTIMES

 

Controversial filmmaker Catherine Breillat (Romance, Fat Girl) delivers her most ambitious film yet with The Last Mistress. Adapted from the novel by Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, the film is set in 19th-century France, when the world was a seemingly innocent place. Underneath the surface, however, lurk dark secrets. The handsome young Ryno de Marigny is about to marry the beautiful Hermangarde. He is so devoted that he has decided to make a clean break from his ongoing affair with the tempestuous Vellini (Asia Argento), though even Hermangarde is concerned that he is in too deep with Vellini. Nonetheless, Ryno and Hermangarde get married, but Vellini’s lure proves too strong a temptation. Breillat’s biggest production to date also feels like one of her most personal. Argento is a perfect Vellini, at once carnal and terrifying but also sensual and alluring. The Last Mistress is a lush period piece that nonetheless has a universal, modern message about love, lust, and romance.  

France, 2007, 114 min., color, French with English subtitles