The Last Mistress

THE LAST MISTRESS is the latest film by renowned French director Catherine Breillat (ROMANCE, FAT GIRL, SEX IS COMEDY), starring Asia Argento (MARIE ANTOINETTE, THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS, GO GO TALES), resulting in a dream pairing of Breillat, France’s foremost provocatrice, with the daredevil screen siren Argento. Featured at the 2007 Cannes and Toronto film festivals, THE LAST MISTRESS made its U.S. premiere at last year’s New York Film Festival.

THE LAST MISTRESS is a smoldering adaptation of Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly’s scandalous 19th-century novel. Set during the reign of “citizen king” Louis Philippe, it chronicles the surprising betrothal of the handsome, aristocratic, former libertine Ryno de Marigny (newcomer Fu-ad Aît Aattou) to Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida of FAT GIRL), a lovely, young and virginal aristocrat. Lurking in the margins – and in the imaginations of high society’s gossip-hounds – is de Marigny’s older, tempestuous lover of ten years, the feral La Vellini (Argento). Described as “a capricious flamenca who can outstare the sun,” La Vellini still burns for de Marigny, and she will not go quietly.

Though a fascinating departure into more traditional storytelling, THE LAST MISTRESS is a continuation of Breillat's career-long interest in the ramifications of female desire, casting Argento as an impassioned independent woman for the ages, in a surprisingly witty and touching – and needless to say sexually explicit – period drama that explores the age-old battle of the sexes.

"Swiftly and deftly immersing us in the fashions – not just the clothes and decor, but also the changing sexual and social ethics – of the 1830s, Breillat’s meticulous, eloquent script and direction succeed in relating a consistently engrossing story." (Geoff Andrew, Time Out)

“Cruel and enthralling...Ms. Breillat’s explorations of desire and pleasure are so far from the antiseptic world of most screen depictions as to seem far out. In truth she’s just fearless, determined to show what others keep hidden — the good, the bad, the tumescent, the fluid — so she can keep puzzling through her ideas. “The Last Mistress” isn’t as graphic as some of her other films, notably “Romance,” which features full-frontal and then some. The sex in this film is far from explicit, though it features geometric formations that may be better suited for Kama Sutra students, or at least the limber. What’s explicit here is ravenous passion and the depiction of desire as a creating, destroying force that invades the very flesh. It’s terribly French...it’s also gloriously unpredictable.” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times)