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The Last Mistress (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 89
Fresh: 67
Rotten:22
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Consensus: More complicated than your average bodice ripper, Catherine Breillat's Last Mistress features beautiful costumes, wrought romances, and a feral performance from Argento.
Theatrical Release:Jun 27, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $621,567
Synopsis: Controversial director 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... Controversial director 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 much more innocent place. Underneath the surface, however, lurk infidelities and other dark secrets. Ryno de Marigny (Fu'ad Ait Aattou) is about to marry the beautiful and sweet Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida). He is so devoted to her that he has decided to make a clean break from his ongoing affair with the tempestuous Vellini (Asia Argento). One day, Hermangarde's grandmother, the Comtesse d'Artelles (Yolande Moreau), convinces Ryno to tell of his affair with Vellini, which he does. By the end of his story, even she is concerned that he is in too deep with Vellini and that the couple's torrid romance will continue. 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. While the film has a sedate façade, it is in keeping with the graphic work of her previous films. Argento is a perfect Vellini, at once carnal and terrifying but also sensual and alluring. The striking Ait Aattou, who makes his first screen appears, confirms Breillat's gift of getting the most out of non-actors. THE LAST MISTRESS is a lush period piece that nonetheless has a universal, modern message, and it makes many daring statements about love, lust, and romance. [More]
Starring: Asia Argento, Fu'ad Ait Aattou, Roxane Mesquida, Claude Sarraute
Starring: Asia Argento, Fu'ad Ait Aattou, Roxane Mesquida, Claude Sarraute, Yolande Moreau, Michael Lonsdale
Director: Catherine Breillat
Director: Catherine Breillat
Screenwriter: Catherine Breillat
Producer: Jean-François Lepetit
Studio: IFC Films
Reviews for The Last Mistress
All of the characters are so elusive and thin there's nothing to grab our interest.
The characters ultimately feel more like pawns to be manipulated, rather than flesh-and-blood human beings who suffer and love, which gives the film’s message that the two are essentially one in the same a rather hollow ring.
Argento seizes each scene with both hands, adding surprising layers of feeling as she goes.
It is an outstandingly intelligent, formally pleasing film, and a fascinating development for Breillat herself.
[An] entertaining, elegantly shot adaptation of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly's 19th century novel.
There was a point about midway through "The Last Mistress" when I was honestly wondering if it was intentionally bad.
Seldom have a filmmaker and lead actress performed in perfect, artistic sync.
Argento is a feral beauty who devours everything in her path, and a perfect actress for Breillat. But the director seems hemmed in by the period finery, and the movie is a self-conscious yawn.
Argento, the daughter of Italian horror maestro Dario Argento, has become a force to be reckoned with on the international film scene over the past couple of years.
Screenwriter/director Catherine Breillat's take on the tale has a definite feminist slant to it, which may explain why the male characters come off so badly. And unfortunately, sometimes that makes it dull.
Oh god, have I ever seen a more tedious 'erotic' movie than this one?
There’s plenty of skin and acrobatic positioning in Catherine Breillat’s The Last Mistress, but the ferocious passions they signify are far more interesting.
What makes the movie ineluctably compelling is Argento's fire in the title role.
A dispassionate autopsy of a passionate triangle, brilliantly devised if not always perfectly executed.
It's characteristic of the virtues and limitations of French sexual provocateur Catherine Breillat...that they usually derive from the same source--the fearless determination to skirt the borders of camp.
Latest News for The Last Mistress
May 25, 2008:
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