Une vieille maîtresse (2007)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Catherine Breillat

Writers:

Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (novel)
Catherine Breillat (adaptation)

Release Date:

30 May 2007 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy. |

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Opposites Attract | Period Piece | Flashback Sequence | 1830s

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Asia Argento	...	Vellini
Fu'ad Ait Aattou	...	Ryno de Marigny
Roxane Mesquida	...	Hermangarde
Claude Sarraute	...	La marquise de Flers
Yolande Moreau	...	La comtesse d'Artelles
Michael Lonsdale	...	Le vicomte de Prony
Anne Parillaud	...	Mme de Solcy
Jean-Philippe Tesse	...	Le vicomte de Mareuil
Sarah Pratt	...	La comtesse de Mendoze
Amira Casar	...	Mademoiselle Divine des Airelles
Lio	...	La chanteuse
Isabelle Renauld	...	L'arrogante
Léa Seydoux	...	Oliva
Nicholas Hawtrey	...	Sir Reginald
Caroline Ducey	...	La dame de Pique

Also Known As:

The Last Mistress (Canada: English title) (USA) (new title)
An Old Mistress (Australia) (new title)

Runtime:

104 min | South Korea:113 min | Canada:114 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:R | Taiwan:R-18 | Argentina:18 | UK:15 | Singapore:R21 | South Korea:18 | USA:Unrated | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (British Columbia)

Company:

Flach Film

Trivia:

Catherine Breillat discovered Fu'ad Ait Aattou in a Paris café.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In one shot, Asia Argento's tailbone tattoo is visible. Although tattoos were known to early 19th century Europeans (in fact, they date back before civilization), it seems improbable that Argento's character, a Spanish lady in France, was meant to have a tattoo in a design like the actress's tattoo.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Metropolis: Cannes 2007 - Special" (2007)

Would both these women really love this man?

Une vieille maîtresse (2007), adapted and directed by Catherine Breillat, was shown in the U.S. with the title, "The Last Mistress." This is a period film, set in early 19th-century France.

The basic plot is a love triangle--Fu'ad Ait Aattou plays the young aristocrat, Ryno de Marigny, who wants to marry the virtuous young woman, Hermangarde, played by the elegant Roxane Mesquida. Asia Argento plays Vellini, a highly sophisticated courtesan, with whom de Marigny has been having an affair for ten years.

The film is filled with beautiful women and lots of sex, but not much else. de Marigny doesn't seem all that desirable or interesting to me, and I didn't buy the plot line that Vellini simply couldn't let him out of her life. It's not that prostitutes can't fall in love, but it struck me as unlikely that this prostitute would fall in love--and stay in love--with this client.

We are supposed to understand that sexual values and attitudes are shifting at this time, and women are becoming liberated from the assumption that they can only be desired, but can't have desires themselves. Maybe so, but I think that justification was tacked on to a film whose raison d'etre is the display of lovely female bodies.

This movie was shown at the excellent Rochester High Falls International Film Festival. Most of the action takes place in drawing rooms and bedrooms, so the film will work well on DVD.