Emotions of Sexuality, Gender, Social Order Wrestle During 1800s Paris in ‘The Last Mistress’

CHICAGO – Difficult as it is now, in 1835 women in Paris never really had many choices for an eventual lifestyle.

They could hope to marry rich and live in relative comfort or they could toil in a working-class marriage while raising children and working themselves to death. If they didn’t marry, they might be a maid or a governess. If they were really bored and bold, though, they could be “The Last Mistress”.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Asia Argento gives a truly fearless performance as the title character. She’s a Spanish temptress named Vellini who’s first seen clinging to an older husband. Her story is told in flashback as related by her lover Ryno de Marigny (Fu’ad Ait Aattou).

Read Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The Last Mistress” in our reviews section. View our full “The Last Mistress” image gallery.

His status as a nobleman is in conflict with the illicit affair, which he has recently broken off after getting engaged to a woman of his social class. He tells the story of his mistress during an all-night session with his fiancée’s grandmother.

The obsessive love affair with Vellini began after a duel with her elderly husband.

During the next 10 years, their relationship would take them to Algeria in exile. Still, it never seems to rise above the gratitude of their sexuality. Despite their obsessive physicality, it is Vellini’s lower caste status that eventually dooms their legitimate togetherness.

The grandmother – properly satisfied with the story and reputation of Marigny – gives her final blessing. The couple is married under the eye of proper society.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “The Last Mistress” review.

Asia Argento in “The Last Mistress”.
Photo credit: Yorgos Arvanitis/Guillaume Lavit d’Hautefort/Flash Film

Asia Argento in “The Last Mistress”.
Photo credit: Yorgos Arvanitis/Guillaume Lavit d’Hautefort/Flash Film

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “The Last Mistress” review.