L'ultima donna

i have looked for a copy of this film for many years. i was so happy the day i located it and have truly enjoyed it several times.

after seeing it, i could understand why the US would not allow it to be imported. there are many scenes that most will find offensive. most of which involve having a baby around during some of the sex scenes, which are fairly explicit - most with gerard's erection very apparent.

looking past the sex scenes, the movie is great. i truly enjoyed the idea of 'the penis rules the world' and that 'food is the comfort of the world' and how those two ideas combine to create on of the most shocking of all endings.

i will recommend this to all that have a true mature mind and can enjoy the 1970's style sexist attitudes without taking offense. of all of the movies i have in my collection, this is one that i very rarely lend out, i do not wish to take the chance of losing it!

After having attended a film festival in Creteil (a posh suburb of Paris), I accidentally got a chance to watch "La derniere femme" on big screen. This invigorating experience took me in a not so distant past to a nice place called Creteil circa 1976. I was much too thrilled to have known Creteil through the vision of a maverick filmmaker Marco Ferreri for which he teamed with his regular partner Rafael Azcona. La dernière femme is a film which will easily please people of varied tastes. It can be liked by feminists,admirers of actors Depardieu and Ornella Muti and supporters of a highly unconventional filmmaker Marco Ferreri. The essential charm of this film lies in Creteil and its high rise buildings.Some of them are occupied by the likes of Depardieu and Muti.There is Michel Piccoli too who lends credible support to the narrative pattern. During my viewing of this film I did not mind at all watching a small kid act alongside Depardieu and Muti.I doubt as to how this can be true of other viewers who might find such a move harmful for young minds. Watch it to explore other films by Marco Ferreri.

All of the reviews so far have missed the mark on this one. The funniest comment is that Depardieu is "corpulent." He doesn't have a six-pack, by any means, but he is not at all corpulent. Even in his later years, he has been, at most, a little chunky. What intrigues me most of all is that none of the reviews mention the creepy fact that a number of sex scenes in this film have a toddler in the middle of them, and that Gerard Depardieu, in a few scenes, spends an inappropriate time exploring said toddler's boy parts. I get that it's supposed to be a comment on some vague Freudian male penis obsession, but it doesn't have to be creepy like that to make such a point (whatever point that is; it's never made clear). It stops just this side of getting the baby involved in the sex, but goes as far as having a swinger fondling party while the baby watches and to have the baby naked on the bed between Depardieu and Muti carrying out some obvious foreplay, to name a couple of disturbing examples. No wonder this one is hard to find.

The good news is this movie features some gratuitous nudity from the beauteous Italian actress Ornella Muti. The bad news is it features far, far more gratuitous nudity from the not-so-beauteous and quite corpulent French actor Gerard Depardieu. This is another slice of Italo-Gallic insanity from director Marco Ferreti. It somewhat resembles his later, more famous film "Ciao, Monkey", but instead of a baby monkey, Depardieu's character has a chubby human baby. But like the monkey in the later film, the male baby is largely a metaphor for the perpetual narcissistic infantilism of Depardieu's character.

Depardieu plays a single father whose feminist wife leaves him alone with their small baby. This doesn't slow down his inveterate womanizing,however, and he soon starts an affair with a young daycare teacher (Muti). It's a little disturbing, especially by modern-day standards, the way Depardieu and Muti engage in naked foreplay pretty much right in front of the baby (although they do have the decency to go into the next room to actually screw). Children that young have little memory, however, so I'm sure the infant actor was much less traumatized by Depardiue's bloated nude body than I was. Anyway, there's a lot of melodrama involving the Depardieu character's continuing compulsive infidelities and his feelings of male irrelevancy in the face of feminism and female sexual liberation. In fact, if the male organ with its insatiable appetites, extreme insecurities, and fickle nature somehow became an actual person it would be just like Depardieu's character in this movie. (So basically, Depardieu here plays a big chubby dick).

As other reviewers have said,the end of this movie is quite shocking-- Depardieu is harpooned by Captain Ahab and he drags him, his ship, and his entire crew to the bottom of the ocean. . . Oh wait, that was "Moby Dick". Well, the end of this movie is even more shocking, especially if you're male. Depardieu does give a very good performance, so I certainly would recommend this to his fans. Muti is not as good (but, oh man, is she beautiful), and this film really marks her transition to the kind of daring art films she is best known for (and without which she'd be a forgotten Italian version of Brooke Shields today) And whatever you can say about Marco Ferreti's films, they're definitely NOT dull. This not great, but check it out if it sounds interesting to you.

I am a Marco Ferreri fun, this superlative movie has Ornella Muti still young - she became my number 1 for years. I saw it in 1977. I must see this film again with more 23 years on my eyes. Recently I saw "L'Inconnu the Strasbourg" and I felt in love with the new "charm" of Ornella Muti as a mature woman and I cried of happiness. I hope to see her again soon.