As seen at AFI Fest 2007:

    Catherine Breillat’s The Last Mistress offers exactly what one might expect from a French period-piece: a lot of talky conversation and a lot of explicit sex. Unfortunately for the movie, the dialogue isn’t particularly riveting, nor is the copulation particularly steamy, leaving little for the viewer to latch on to. In fact, most aspects of The Last Mistress represent traits indicative of cinematic dullsville. And, while the picture may not be entirely boring on the whole, it certainly isn’t entertaining enough to be considered a rewarding artistic endeavor.

     The Last Mistress focuses on an intimate circle of characters, but none of them come to earn the sympathy or empathy of the audience by the time the film’s final frame rolls through the projector. They merely exist as mechanical puppets o the movie’s plot. For the majority of the duration, the action is told through flashbacks as Ryno de Marigny (Fu'ad Ait Aattou) justifies his love for his fiancée, Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida), to her boisterous grandmother (Claude Sarraute). Ryno’s future fidelity is questioned by Harmangarde’s family because of his notorious (and assumedly ended) relationship with sexy Salamanca-native Vellini (Asia Argento), who just so happens to be Hermangarde’s father’s (Michael Lonsdale) mistress as well.

     If there is one thing that is exceptional about The Last Mistress, it is the visual look of the film. The lush costume design and gorgeous set decoration both prove to be feasts for the eyes of the viewer. When coupled with veteran Giorgos Arvanitis’ picturesque cinematography, these aspects of the movie nearly allow the viewer to forget just how stale the central story and its characters are. Had Breillat’s adaptation of Barbey-D'Aurévilly’s novel been more provocative and/or innovative, then perhaps The Last Mistress’ delectable imagery might have had a reason to exist. As it is now, the movie is pretty, but I could name a hundred better pretty movies that I have seen without once stuttering.

     As Ryno, Aattou gives a performance that feels too youthful. The actor has the presence of a boy in his mid-teens, which leads to the audience not believing his affair with Vellini for a second. Frankly, I don’t think that there is much about Ryno that she could possibly be attracted to other than (maybe) his hunger for her. In addition, much of Aattou’s work gives off the peculiar impression that he is trying to impersonate other actors who have played similar period-piece roles, such as James McAvoy and Matthew McFayden. Luckily, his co-star, Argento, is far more successful in crafting her character than he is his. While the viewer never quite comes to like Vellini, she at least provides some seductive energy to an otherwise yawn-inducing picture.

     Coming from Breillat, an accomplished director who has been making films for over thirty years, The Last Mistress seems a rather auspicious motion-picture. Isn’t the purpose of the career of a filmic veteran of Breillat’s caliber to make films that are challenging, original, or daring in some way? The Last Mistress is a thoroughly mediocre piece that doesn’t even make a concerted effort to appear fresh. The fact that it never becomes flat-out painful to watch only exists as one of the many reasons why this movie is bound to be forgotten in due time.

-Danny Baldwin, Bucket Reviews

Review Published on: 11.21.2007

Screened on: 11.5.2007 at an AFI Fest 2007 screening at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, CA.