NYFF: The Last Mistress

By Katey Rich

Vellini and Ryno get it on despite better judgment.

Who better to bring a little sex to the New York Film Festival than Catherine Breillat? The French director famous for her blunt eroticism chose an apt novel to adapt for her latest, The Last Mistress, Jules-Amde Barbey d'Aurevilly's tale about a 10-year love affair between a French nobleman and a passionate Spanish woman. Fu'ad Ait Aattou makes his film debut as Ryno, the playboy who spends his fortune on his lover Vellini (Asia Argento), and eventually must marry a richer woman (Roxane Mesquida) despite his unwilling love and lust for Vellini.

For Breillat, much of what went into making the film was "destiny," as when she auditioned Aattou for the role of Ryno. "When I looked at [Fu'ad], I said to my assistant, oh this one, he's Ryno, he's my dream. You have to run after him because you never can find for me some boy like him. It's a sign of destiny." Breillat chose d'Aurevilly's novel because "if I had lived in the 19th century, the author would have been me."

Vellini watches her lover from afar at the opera

Though the film is a period costume drama, with muttered gossip behind elaborate fans and conversations in opulent sitting rooms, Breillat's touches come out in the details. "I'm an artisan, so I get very involved with colors and materials," she said during the film's press conference. "For the movement, I inspire myself from bodies like in paintings. I think Caravaggio's bodies that are tilted back inspire me a lot."

One of Breillat's most eccentric touches occurs during a party scene, when a guest stands at the piano and sings Ralph Benatzky's 1930s song "Yes Sir," in German no less. Why this anachronistic, Baz Luhrmann-esque moment? "It's to show that you can make a historical movie while being very conscious of the precision of history and still incorporating fantasy." Breillat also cited Marlene Dietrich's performance in The Devil is a Woman as an inspiration for the character of Vellini. "The song "Yes Sir" is a song that resembles very much the songs of Marlene Dietrich . In a certain sense, it's an homage."

And, of course, there are the sex scenes. As Vellini and Ryno's relationship becomes more one-sided, their lovemaking demonstrates the growing distance; often Vellini is the only character moving. "It's she who's making love to him, and not the opposite way around," Breillat said. "She uses him like a statue of flesh, an emotional statue."

Vellini and Ryno have a dalliance in the park.

Mesquida, who has a smaller role in this film, had high praise for Breillat's filmmaking method. "I think she's very manipulative, because she works with her hands, and it's really physical," she said. "It's a little bland with the other directors. I really love to work with her, because every time I feel that I go farther and farther in my job."

The Last Mistress can be trying, with its starchy dialogue and endless assortment of counts and countesses parading about, but the passionate romance at the center of the movie makes up for much of it. At the very least, Argento and Aattou are attractive to watch together, even if their story feels a little familiar and, well, stuffy.