THE LAST MISTRESS
(French with English Subtitles – 2007 – 114 minutes)
Directed by Catherine Beilott
Review By Michael Ricciardi
This rich, sensual, period (19th century) drama delves deeply and darkly into sexual manners and manipulation, underpinned by the dual themes of fidelity and jealousy. It is the story of an “untitled gentleman” --one Ryno de Marigny (played by Fu’ad Aït Aattou )-- who must forsake his older mistress--the widow of a well-to-do Spanish aristocrat (played by Asia Argento)--for marriage to a younger, beautiful ingénue of noble blood.
On the night before his wedding, this “aging Don Juan”—having aged not one bit in appearance throughout the film—tells his fiancé’s grandmother the story of how he came to meet this “Flamenca” –one Senora Vellini--and fall under the spell of her considerable (sexual) charms. The love affair lasts ten years, up to the very day before his marriage (and, in fact, beyond it). The grandmother is not unsympathetic to the excruciatingly handsome young man (who is supposed to be 30 years old at this point, but looks barely a few years out of high school) despite having been paid an earlier visit by a prominent social gad-fly informing her of the young man’s recent visit to his “former” mistress’s home.
We believe the young gentleman when he tells the grandmother of his great love for her beautiful granddaughter. We accept readily his sincerity, and even admire his honesty in discussing his past with the elder noblewoman. And, we (want to) believe that this charming, handsome man desperately wants a new life and will make a fine husband for the cloistered, naïve granddaughter.
Told from that point on in flashback, and then up to the present time, including the newly wedded couples’ retreat to a seaside estate, the story reveals the profound fatalism that binds the two—the gentleman and his Flamenca mistress—and culminates in inevitable tragedy. For, it is only tragedy that can result when two profoundly selfish souls become intertwined.
The setting and mood of this film is reminiscent of the villainous epics of classic French Romanticism, yet it is not entirely clear who the villains are here Is it Mistress Vellini, whose emotional connection, and deep jealousy, cannot suffer being cast aside for a younger wife, or, the young, conflicted gentlemen who lacks the will to refuse her stalking and sexual manipulations? In a final “love-making” scene—almost too difficult to watch—the couples’ inexorable, chained destiny—the final result of all their past choices--is strikingly revealed. There is no love here, only desire and revulsion. Each is the villain to the other’s desires.
The Last Mistress is a great, tragic film--beauteous to the eyes, deeply painful to the heart.