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The Last Mistress, a film by Catherine Breillat, director of the hot-n-sexy (and probably X-rated if released in the 1970s) Romance, deals with the torn and frayed and wretched relationship between Vellini (Asia Argento), and Ryno de Marigny (first timer Fu'ad Ait Aattou), and how Ryno's mistress threatens his marriage to Hermandarde (Roxane Mesquida), granddaughter of a tough but very fair and reasonable old matriarch. Breillat's direction of the story, which is mostly told in flashback as the grandmother of her soon-to-be-grandson-in-law tells all about his very turbulent bond with Vellini, is sometimes a little dull and stodgy, and it drags in spots that it really should pick up in high gear.

But damn it all if it's not some absorbing times in the midst of a classic period setting among character we can relish in. Granted, Breillat likely cast Aattou for constantly having a 'sexy-man' look (somewhat akin, if you ask me, of a young Mick Jagger with ridiculously striking eyes and big lips). Argento, on the other hand, is cast perfectly, and for every bit that Aatou and Mesquida don't quite connect as husband and wife it's made up for by the total, hot connection between the real two leads. Argento is right at home with this twisted, damaged but alive and easily emotional creature, who has that tendency in French melodramas for tragedy at any moment just to get a rise. But she's also tender in surprising moments, and lets her soul bare completely in rough sex scenes (the craziest set in the desert following a very sudden death of a character), which par for Breillat are go-for-broke.

What the film may lack in really being a fully "modern" work- it feels like a lot of it is so stuck in the period novel setting that it's locked away, which maybe was the right choice- it's made up for by the stars' appeal and the drive of the torrid love affair that just won't go away. It's appealing, boring, and highly charged in equal measure.

Although I've seen several of them now, I still don't know if I actually LIKE Catherine Breillat films. Her films are a strange contradiction: On one hand, they contain a lot of pretty graphic sex and always feature some of the most attractive actresses in Europe (and this one with Asia Argento and Roxanne Mesquia is certainly no exception). On the other though, they are often very depressing and told with such a harsh feminist bent that they probably make most people (well, most men anyway)feel more like castrating themselves than getting turned on. ( I actually haven't even seen her most notorious film, "Fat Girl", but after the truly depressing experience that was the supposedly very similar "36 Fillete" I've never wanted to).

You would expect then given Breillat's typical misanthropic bent that when she made a French costume drama like this one, the liaisons would be even more dangerous and the intentions even crueler. This is actually a surprisingly soft-hearted film though where all the main characters are pretty likable and sympathetic (at least in some ways). The only typically harsh Breillat touch is a couple having frenzied sex next to the funeral pyre of their dead daughter. The basic story involves a handsome young rake, who is about to marry a beautiful young heiress (Mesquia) with the blessing of her jaded-but-wise grandmother (who, since this is set in 1835, is herself a battle-scarred veteran of the original pre-revolutionary "dangerous liaison" era). He is unable to give up his long-time mistress, however, a social-climbing Spanish divorcée (Argento) with whom he has had a passionate ten year love-hate relationship. All the acting is very good and the characters believable (although you do have to wonder why a 19th Spanish noblewoman would have a tattoo on her butt). My only real complaint was that it was about a half an hour too long and the climax was pretty anti-climactic.

If you like either French costume dramas or typical Catherine Breillat films, you may or may not like this, since it ends being very different than either. It's not too bad though.

Une vieille maîtresse – The Last Mistress – CATCH IT (B) Based upon controversial French novel "Une vieille maîtresse/An old Mistress" by Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly. Just like most of the French movies The Last Mistress doesn't hesitate from sex, seduction and brutality of love. It's a story about a young rich French Ryno de Marigny who is ready to get married into a Nobel family. Just before getting married he confronts in front of his future rich wife's grandmother about his last old mistress of 10 years. The movie unfolds how Ryno falls head over heels for an older married woman, who is not even pretty or graceful. It's the rawness which attracts Ryno towards her, whom he first called an ugly nut. Fu'ad Aït Aattou a newcomer played Ryno with utmost honesty. He is divine and his falling for an Asia Argento's ambiguous character is questionable. But that's the whole point of love, lust and seduction when two unlikely people meet and ruin everything around them along with each other. Asia Argento is amazing, even though I saw her first in Marie Antoinette as French king's crazy mistress raised question of her action ability because she acted the same as she acted here. If I ignore that she was in tedious Marie Antoinette and Une vieille maîtresse release long before atrocious Marie Antoneitte. I actually loved her performance. There are many few actresses who can let them emotionally and physically open like that. You forget that it's the part of an act as it looks reality. Fu'ad Aït Aattou and Asia Argento's chemistry makes this a memorable venture. The long sex confrontation scenes are the proof how involved they are with the subject. Roxane Mesquida as Ryno's wife is stunning as always. Une vieille maîtresse is a controversial tale of lust, love and seduction. Overall, I enjoyed the movie even though I wanted the characters to be smart not so naïve and stupid, lost in sex, lust and seduction.

"The Last Mistress" revolves around Ryno, an impoverished nobleman and his long relationship with Vellini, his mistress. From the very start they have destructive relationship which over the time has been converted to an amalgam of love and hate.

The subject of the movie is age old, but I never got bored. There are many unexpected twists and turns and keep the audience occupied. The sets, costumes , acting and everything else is top notch. Asia Argento has done a wonderful job. Her performance seems different from what she has done earlier but I think that is due mostly to what was demanded of her for the role.

Breillat's films are mostly small budget contemporary provocations with a feminist bent. This one, her twelfth, she says cost as much as ten previous ones and is a costume drama based on a controversial novel by Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808-1889). This is a bit confusing: the film begins by saying it's the century of Choderlos de Laclos (author of Dangerous Liaisons). but his famous work was written in 1782, and the action of d'Aurevilly's novel is set in 1835. The point is, the story is about the French aristocracy, and in the early nineteenth century its members still believed in and lived by the libertinism of Laclos.

In fact The Last Mistress (Une vieille maitresse) is a transitional story that links the two centuries and in a sense presents a romantic conception of the eighteenth century. Ryno de Marigny (beautiful newcomer Fu'ad Ait Aattou) is a high born young man who has squandered his wealth on his Spanish mistress, the willful Vellini (Asia Argento, in her element), with whom he's been involved for ten years. Allocine calls Ryno "a kind of romantic Valmont." But that's just it: there was nothing romantic about de Laclos' cruel and manipulative Valmont and Ryno is a new post-eighteenth-century conception of the eighteenth-century libertine that is titillated by his freedom but adds the emotional dressing of romantic passion. Breillat obviously loves this combination, is at home with it, and has given it deliriously appropriate treatment in this minor but beautiful, lush, and thoroughly enjoyable film.

The Breillat touch is perhaps most visible in the love-making scenes between Vellini and Ryno, in which there is much nudity and specificity of physical detail. Fu'ad Ait Aattou has pale skin and bigger lips than Asia Argento. By intention, both are androgynous; this is Breillat's conception of Choderlos de Laclos's and d'Aurevilly's libertines. The two actors are perfectly matched for this. Vellini is the aggressor; it is she who makes love with Ryno, using him like a lovely male statue made of alabaster. He is passionate like a romantic lover, however: that is, he's hung up on her forever, no matter what he tries. Early on, he fights a duel with her English husband and is wounded in the shoulder. The sex sequences are specific and fleshy as in no other costume drama, but Breillat is not creating an anachronistic work. As she explained in the NYFF press Q&A, she is passionate about the quality of her period detail and bought tons of lush materials and costumes. The dress, the jewelry, and the interiors are all completely authentic, and there is a rich color scheme in which red and green and yellow predominate. Without seeming over-glossy (it's not eye-candy like Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette), The Last Mistress is a pleasure to look at. It's also a pleasure to listen to, with its choice use of ornate and witty language. Oldtimer Michael Lonsdale as the gossipy Le vicomte de Prony particularly relishes his well-turned phrases.

As the story gets under way, Ryno has now found a wife, the beautiful young blonde noblewoman Hermangarde (Breillat regular Roxane Mesquida), and he's in love with her, and tired of Villini. Hermangarde's grandmother, the Marquise de Flers (non-actress Claude Sarraute, daughter of novelist Nathalie) is responsible for vetting Ryno, and in a lengthy sequence that's the heart of the film, he confesses to her everything about his relationship with Vellini. After much has been told (and shown on screen) in an amusing moment we see the Marquise reclining low in her seat: she is exhausted, but entranced. She wants to hear every detail. The Marquise is of course, of the older generation--a real Choderlos de Laclos lady. For her, the information that Ryno is a true libertine is proof that he is reliable, not an unknown quantity. And the cards are on the table. He'll do.

Rybno has every intention of having done with Vellini, and in a scene we've observed before his confession, he's made love with her one last time and they've said their adieus and adioses. Afrter his marriage, which we don't see, Ryno and Hermangarde live in a castle by the sea--so that he can avoid the temptations of Paris. Velllini waits four months, and then she appears. And once she is in front of Ryno, despite his professions of being fed up with her, he can't resist her.

There are several scenes in which Vellini draws blood from Ryno and licks it up: hints or Ms. Argento's father's films? Part of the New York Film Festival 2007. Three years after a stroke, Breillat is clearly in fine form--never better--and this is a long-awaited (by her) labor of love.

Milan Kundera writes: "Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition." Case in point, Ryno de Marigny (Fu'ad Ait Aattou), an impoverished but elegantly handsome young man who is trapped between the aristocratic world to which he aspires, and an obsessive bond with a defiantly independent mistress, the boldly seductive Vellini (Asia Argento), an older but dazzling Spanish woman said to be born of an Italian noblewoman and a bullfighter. Adapted from a 19th-century novel Une vieille maîtresse by Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly, Catherine Breillat's beautiful and elegant The Last Mistress, challenges the patriarchal assumptions of the age by depicting a 36-year old woman's right to fully express her sexual desires even if it is means flaunting society's conventions and Christian misogynist teachings.

Set in Paris in 1835, complete with elaborate period costumes and sumptuously decorated drawing rooms, the film opens with the gossip between two aging aristocrats, the Vicomte de Prony (Michael Lonsdale) and his wife, the Countess d'Artelles (Yolande Moreau about the ten-year affair between de Marigny and Vellini and the young man's impending marriage to the wealthy Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida). Hermangarde's grandmother La marquise de Flers, excellently played by the 80-year-old French writer Claude Sarrate, is an open-minded and rational individual who claims to be a woman of the 18th century. Worried that Ryno will not be able to get over his passion for his fiery Spanish mistress, de Flers listens attentively as Ryno relates to her the details of his long relationship, an affair that he says has now come to an end, telling her that "You don't betray a new love with an old mistress".

In flashback, Ryno relates how he was overcome by Vellini's wild beauty after they were introduced at a party ten years before. Vellini, then married to a wealthy but dull Englishman, reacts negatively, however, when she overhears Ryno call her an ugly mutt and the young man is forced to vigorously pursue her despite her strong objections, forcing her to kiss him while the two are out riding. Her horrified husband witnesses the act and challenges Ryno to a duel the next morning. After deliberately missing his first shot, Ryno is shot in the chest, a wound from which he will take months to recover. The incident, however, triggers Vellini's awareness of her love for Ryno, exotically announced by her sucking the blood from the gaping hole in his chest.

De Flers presses Ryno for the details of their life together during the past ten years but the dramatic story is better left for the viewer to discover. When the film returns to present time, de Marigny and Hermangarde are married and ostensibly in love, yet he struggles to keep his word to her grandmother by moving away from the temptations of Paris to a remote seacoast. The cigar-smoking temptress, however, also loves the fresh sea air and the stage is set for the film's final act. The Last Mistress is an outstanding work of art that is strengthened immeasurably by striking performances by Asia Argento and first-time actor Fu'ad Ait Aattou. Argento fully captures Vellini's sexual assertiveness but tempers her incendiary disposition with naturalism and a tenderness that makes us care about her fate.

Aattou, discovered by Breillat in a crowded café, is almost feminine in appearance with overly thick lips and sensitive eyes, yet he brings a masculine determination to the role that makes him completely convincing. Like the recent film by Jacques Rivette, The Duchess of Langeais, in The Last Mistress love becomes a contest of wills, a power struggle between two people whose relationship consists of a tug of war not only between domination and submission but between 18th and 19th century social codes. That Breillat makes the ride so entrancing is a tribute to her enormous talent.

Greetings again from the darkness. I always get a kick out of the French cinematic view of love. Of course, there is always some single person we are meant for ... though endless lovers are expected. Somehow there is a soul mate and we always find that person not matter the pain caused to ourself or others.

Director Catherine Breillat uses the transition of France from the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth as the setting for this tale of "love" among the French upper crust. A cheap plot device - the ultimate detailed confession - provides the full guts of the story, both background and foreshadow.

What made the film inaccessible for me were both lead actors, especially Asia Argento as Vellini (the last mistress). I just didn't find these people likable, whether together or apart. On the other hand, I did enjoy Michael Lonsdale as de Prony, and his wonderful dialogue and delivery.

Mostly an uneventful couple of hours with no surprise ending at all.

Last Mistress, The (2007)

*** (out of 4)

Libertine Ryno de Marigny (Fu'ad Ait Aattou) is about to marry into a rich family but must explain to his soon to be wife's grandmother why he has spent the last ten years with the same mistress (Asia Argento. The man must explain the two's connection and he must then face the fact that he won't be able to see her again or if she will let this happen. Breillat has become one of my favorite directors since seeing FAT GIRL several years back and she continues her success with this love triangle that certainly has a lot more style than substance. In the end, I'm really not sure if this movie tries to say anything other than that men are worthless pigs but if that's all there is to say then I'm alright with it because this is a beautiful film to look at and we're given some fine performances to watch. Argento is the one who really stood out for me and this is certainly the best I've seen from her. She's usually hit and miss (especially in her dad's movies) but she nails all the right notes here and delivers a full character. I really felt Argento hit all the dramatic notes just right and I think she did quite well in the more emotional scenes at well. There's a bizarre sequence in the desert where she really gets to show this off as well as mixing it in with her sexuality. Being a Breillat film, you know there's going to be quite a bit of sex and nudity. There's plenty of both but it's certainly a lot tamer than we're use to seeing but Argento dives into it head first. There's not an inch of her body that Breillat doesn't put the camera on but this is never a bad thing as she's got a certain way to throw her sexuality around. Newcomer Ait Aattou is also very impressive as the libertine as he perfectly captures the spirit and tortured soul of this character. He and Argento work extremely well together and this is especially true during their more dramatic moments. The visual look of the film is a real treat as the cinematography is top notch as is the costumes, art design and the marvelous sets. It seems Breillat spent a lot more time on the style here than the actual substance but I don't say this as a negative thing. I'm sure some might feel there should be more meat here but I think the film balances both ends quite well and in the end we're left with a very impressive film, although no classic.

I saw this movie this afternoon, and though at the end my watch assured me that it was less than 2 hours long, I had the impression I had sat through a verbatim reading of the entire 459 page novel. Endless dialogues in very literary French with the characters sitting down, filmed by a director who has no idea how to film dialogue, especially literary dialogue. The costumes were nice and so were the sets, but it reminded me of a very bad Masterpiece Theater episode.

And it's a shame, because there was the makings here for a good movie (with another director). Most of the actors and actresses looked their parts, with the annoying exception of the male lead, who looked convincing at 20 but way too boyish - or girlish - for 30. The novel is interesting. (Though the premise is obvious and doesn't sustain almost 500 pages. The novel would be better known if it were a lot shorter.) A much better script could have been the basis for a good movie. (The script was evidently by the director.)

And then there were the annoying small mistakes. Why, in the middle of a movie that sticks close to its historical period, c. 1835, do the characters do a rendition of a German popular song from the 1920s that sounds very 1920s? Why, at the opening of the movie, is the date 1835 given with the tag "the period of Choderlos de Laclos"? Laclos died in 1805 and his one remembered work, Les Liaisons dangereuses, dates from 1782. This story so very clearly dates from the Restoration and right after it, the period Balzac, Barbey's real contemporary, described so well in Eugénie Grandet, with its aristocracy moving ever further to a moral and sexual right wing - as we see in poor Ermangarde, who is afraid to enjoy sex.

As I said, the acting here was fine, the sets and costumes ditto. But the dialogue was leaden as was the direction, and I found the male lead annoying.

A major disappointment.

We just came back from Paris and wanted to get an impression of Paris' society in the 18 hundreds when we decided to watch this movie. Actually, we were quite excited since we did not know the director nor any of her former movies. We waited for the story to unfold and draw us into the atmosphere - but the story, the actors, the script were so predictable and stilted. Even the 'erotic' scenes were anything but erotic. At some points the people in the movie theater started to laugh and we got terribly bored. I always saw the actors acting which destroys the whole magic of a movie. I don't think that this movie has anything to do with the great tradition of French movie making. Close shots, love for details, the good looks of the leading male actor, and beautiful costumes don't make a good movie.

This is a beautiful period film with a lot of Breillat's trademark unflinching look at love and war between sexes. The story is old, but this is first time I see it put so frankly - they not marrying the the love of their life....

Sex is shot amazingly. There is an eyeful of historical detail and actors are looking great, dressed and undressed. The book it is based on according to Breillat, is autobiographical, which makes it even more interesting.

To put it simply - great work in many aspects.

Bravo again Catherine!

I like costume dramas and period pieces as much as the next person, but this one just didn't sit that well with me at all. Despite the sumptuous detail, exquisite costumes and a great score, it failed to draw me in on an emotional level. For me, none of the characters were in any way likable, and the worst thing was that it felt so stuffy. Besides this, I've only seen one other Catherine Breillat film, ROMANCE which, while having a depressing atmosphere that I often enjoy, was too pretentious for me to really get into. This film, combined with the other, is almost enough for me to swear off Catherine Breillat films from here on out. The basics of the story is that a young nobleman is engaged to be married, but his former mistress of 10 years (Asia Argento) doesn't want to let him go. I've never particularly liked Asia Argento, but she seemed a little more natural in French here then in the few English roles I've seen her in elsewhere. The actor who played Ryno de Marigny, the man to be married, also didn't work for me. He was so uncharismatic and it baffled me how he could have been so entranced by Asia Argento's Vellini. The only two characters that I thought were the least bit interesting were two old ladies, one of whom listens to Ryno's long story about his past with Vellini. At least they seemed like they were having fun with the material. Overall, while it might have a few interesting things to say about fidelity (or the lack thereof) in relationships and excellent production design, to me it was too emotionally vacuous and stodgy to really be effective. Maybe see this if you're a fan of Catherine Breillat, but for everyone else, there are better period pieces worth your time, such as THE INVISIBLE WOMAN.

Where do I even begin? This was the biggest waste of time, you'd think with such a beautiful setting, decent costumes and interesting story that it would leave more of an impression. I don't remember a single character I liked, I felt absolutely nothing throughout the entire movie, no chemistry, the sex scenes are awkward and boring, there are way too many scenes of no dialogue, staring at Ryno 's face, I know he's hot but come on! I literally thought my TV froze because these scenes with nothing happening occurs so often, while there are plenty of wider shots that show off the breathtaking scenery. Their acting is so stiff and unnatural, my time is better spent counting how many times we just get a shot of them frozen in place staring into space.

Its been awhile since I fell in love with a film, THE LAST MISTRESS reignited the flame. It is by far the best film yet of 2008. Few films can really develop the inexplicable magnetism of one person to another, the unbreakable bond that keeps them from drifting afar for too long. Its rare to experience, and difficult to understand. Somehow Breillat has brought to life a rich portrait of the love of a lifetime. Criticisms of pacing are way off, the performers are thinking, soaking in their melancholy and you track that sadness out of the theater in wet footprints. It was hard to leave the room when the credits were over, I wanted more of them, to believe in love no matter how much pain or consequence weathers its journey. Steadfast and true. One of the best female characters to date, and by far a groundbreaking performance from Argento! Rich, passionate, heartbreaking and Breillat's greatest success yet. This is film-making my friends! The younger ones may have trouble understanding or appreciating. For those of us still in love.

(2007) The Last Mistress/ Une Vieille Maîtresse (In French with English subtitles) HISTORICAL DRAMA

For some people to appreciate this film has to have a better understanding about French history, as I have no idea during which person this film is set on. I do know that I had already seen this type of situation before on other historical films that taken place during that era, and I must say this has to be one of the most boring ones I had ever saw. Based on the Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly novel starring Fu'ad Aït Aattou as a 30 year old, boyish penniless aristocrat Ryno de Marigny who's engaged to be married to Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida)the daughter of a wealthy countess. Except that he can't seem to completely ignore this other "mistress" Vellini (Asia Argento) who also was married to a wealthy old socialite but eventually does not want to have anything to with him. For a good portion of the film, Ryno reveals to the wealthy countess how he's historically connected to his other mistress, while she determines whether he's the right person to marry her daughter. Even with the running time of 104 minutes, it still felt very long and 'shallow' for even though we have a better understanding of the situation that we seem to lose sight of the motivation which this affair was supposed to be started off with a bet between two men. This film is identical to other films such as "Dangerous Liasons", "Valmont", "Dangerous Beauty", "Bel Ami", "Restoration" and "The Duchess" among other movies. And because it's directed by the controversial director Catherine Breillat expect small scenes of full frontal nudity of Asia Argento for you may have to wait quite awhile to see it, or use your 'fast forward' remote.

For years,I pretty much avoided the "face of new Euro porn" films of French director Catherine Breillart (infamous for 'Romance',or 'Romance X',as it was known in Europe). When I heard she had taken on a film adaptation of the 19th century erotic masterpiece, 'The Last Mistress', I though to myself "grand...more boring Euro porn" (I walked out on 'Romance X' out of sheer boredom,and not of shock). Well, I was pleasantly surprised by 'Mistress'. Mind you, Breillart still has some growing up as a writer/director to do (there are things that transpire that are never explained),and her characters are still for the most part, unlikable. Apart from that, she has made some improvements. The cast includes Asia Argento,who doesn't seem to have any issues with tossing off her duds and parading around nude in any film she appears in,as well as several others,including veteran British actor Michael Lonsdale. The plot concerns a penniless,good for nothing young lad who is engaged to be married to a French woman of wealth & name, but has been an off again,on again lover of a half Spanish/half French woman of no certain valor. All I could think at times was 'Dangerous Liasions' meets 'Fatal Attraction',filtered thru a European perspective. This film obviously will not be everybody's cup of tea,but is still worth a look. No rating here,but probably only pull down a hard "R",due to nudity & some fairly restrained sexuality.

So I watched this movie last night and was pleasantly surprised of how good it was. It takes a minute to really get into it, but once you start feeling the emotions of the characters and how they feel for each other, you really get a sense that the director knew what she was doing. Asia Argento was absolutely brilliant, and played the part quite well. You have to understand that this movie is in French, and really this movie should be viewed by those who understand foreign films and how they're made. Would this movie be a date night movie? Probably not. This is not the kind of movie that you would want To watch with your significant other, if your significant other doesn't understand foreign films. The French have a unique way of creating movie art that really invokes some deep emotions in you, and you can often feel like you're watching an autobiography of your life. I think we all can agree that we have had similar experiences with past loves. The French really know how to show a heart being pulled in two different directions. If you're a casual movie watcher, this isn't probably for you.