Starring Asia Argento, Fu’ad Ait Aattou. Written by Catherine Breillat
from the novel by Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly. Directed by
Catherine Breillat. (18A) 114 min. Opens July 25.
That a decidedly period-inappropriate tattoo can be spotted on Asia Argento’s naked back is one indication in The Last Mistress that director Catherine Breillat is unafraid to bring a modern (if not quite post-modern) sensibility to this tale of sexual warfare in 19th-century Paris. Then again, maybe Argento — who reportedly clashed with Breillat during the making of the film, the director’s first since suffering a debilitating stroke in 2004 — was displaying her own brand of defiance.
The pairing of these two tempestuous talents proves to be fortuitous. In this adaptation of the 1851 novel by Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly, the director of Fat Girl and Romance offers a typically ruthless view of the human heart, along with body parts located further south. Argento is beautiful and cruel as Vellini, a scandalous Spanish belle who refuses to relinquish her grip on her long-time lover Marigny (Fu’ad Ait Aattou) after he finds a more respectable marriage prospect (played by Fat Girl’s Roxane Mesquida).
Though cut from the same cloth as Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons and Patrice Leconte’s Ridicule, The Last Mistress is more severe in nature yet more heated in its passions. And while the costume-drama trappings occasionally seem to stifle Breillat and Argento’s efforts to connect the 19th century with the 21st, they succeed in stripping away the genre’s attendant frippery — as well as the characters’ lavish finery — to reveal the savagery and sorrow at the story’s core.