NYFF. The Last Mistress.

"Catherine Breillat's reputation preceded her and along with the very positive reviews that came out of Cannes I couldn't wait to see Une vielle maîtresse (The Last Mistress)," wrote Jesse Ataide at DVD Verdict when he caught the film in Toronto. "The film, much to my relief, was everything that I had hoped for. Visually sumptuous (Breillet had mentioned that she had been particularly inspired by the paintings of Manet and Delacroix), the film never lets the sheer beauty of the period Parisian locations or opulent costumes weigh down the story or shield the sexual heat."

"By the midpoint of Une vieille maîtresse I already knew that Catherine Breillat would be my next project," writes Darren Hughes. "It probably goes without saying that Asia Argento steals every scene, but Breillat's staging of their bodies, more than anything else, is what has provoked my curiosity about her work."

Updated through 10/16.

"In a way, Catherine Breillat's infusion of subtle humor in the film reflects a certain accessible, newfound sensibility to her cinema," writes acquarello. "Breillat diverges from the (explicitly) transgressive elements that have come to define her cinema towards a more implicit and refined, yet still sensual, atmospheric, and deeply romantic tale of fidelity, passion, and obsession."

"While bodice-ripping historical romances are nothing new, Breillat brings her indelible mix of braininess and rawness; mixing verbal and physical sexual exchanges, she aims both high and low where other films settle for a tastefully soft-core middle," writes Kevin B Lee at the House Next Door.

"Breillat pulls away the magnifying glass from this couple in the final moments, reminding us that this insistent greed, not merely for power, but for money, rank, and any number of superficial delights, is an affliction of nearly every party concerned in this drama," writes Jenny Jediny at Not Coming to a Theater Near You.

For Slant's Ed Gonzalez, with the exception of a few "great scenes," this is "a rather predictable costume drama about l'amour fou and the difficulty a man has getting a dangerous woman out of his system."

And for Marcy Dermansky, all the "pathos does not ring true; The Last Mistress is nothing but pure, laughable melodrama."

"Argento is excellent as the snarling, one-earring-ed, unstoppable lover (I imagined the second earring had always just been fucked away), though her synthetic and much bared breasts prove highly distracting for a film set in 1835," writes Michelle Orange at the Reeler. "Breillat fans will see Breillat films regardless - as they should - and this one, despite pacing problems and a prolonged third act, has much to offer for the uninitiated as well."

"Mistress is so Gallic, in the way it prioritizes sexual desire, practically elevating it to a lifetime achievement, and assuming its longevity," writes Erica Abeel for Filmmaker.

Bilge Ebiri talks with Breillat for Nerve.

Earlier: Reviews from Cannes.

Update, 10/16: In both The Last Mistress and Go Go Tales, Argento "is at once ultra-feminine and masculine, sexy and 'scary,' in a way that maybe hasn't been seen on screen to this extent since the height of Marlene Dietrich," writes Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog. "In fact, The Last Mistress feels very much like a Dietrich film, with various themes and plot threads borrowed from The Blue Angel and Morocco. Breillat's method of directing actors is also not totally dissimilar to that of the director who made Dietrich's Hollywood career, Josef Von Sternberg, in that both tend to privlege physical choeography over the development of a character's inner life."

Posted by dwhudson at October 14, 2007 3:23 PM