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european-films.net - review: Une vieille ma

european-films.net - review: Une vieille ma
Justin Henine-Hardenne  |  by european-films.net. All rights reserved. 16.07 | 23:24

Une vieille maitresse (An Old Mistress) film reviewFrench director and provocatrice extraordinaire Catherine Breillat is finally tamed by a partially stilted adaptation of an early 19th century literary classic in Une vieille ma tresse (An Old Mistress).

Asia Argento stars in the title role of Spanish courtesan who imperils the happiness of a young married couple, though it is model-turned-actor Fu ad A i t Aattou as the married man and her doomed former lover who steals the show, and not only because he has the biggest lips this side of Angelina Jolie. To further pile on the unusual qualities of a costume drama by the director of A ma soeur (Fat Girl) and Sex is Comedy, Breillat regular Roxane Mesquida (the promiscuous sister from A ma soeur) is cast here as the beatific virgin married to Aattou.

Based on the novel by Jules-Am e d e e Barbey d Aurevilly, Une vieille ma tresse tells the story of a 30-year-old libertine called Ryno de Marigny (A i t Aattou) who is set to marry the beautiful and pure aristocratic child Hermangarde (Mesquida).

Before marrying her, Ryno tells her curious grandmother the marquise de Flers (played by French entertainment journalist Claude Sarraute) how he has been under the spell of La Vellini (Argento), an Andalusian courtesan, for ten years but that he has put a stop to it on the night before arriving at the marquise.

An enormous flashback of around an hour details the ten years Ryno and La Vellini spent together and is by far the most interesting part of the film, as all that leads up to it and all that comes after is not just less interesting but actually stuffy in a respected TV-adaptation-of-a-respected-novel kind of way (associating stuffy with a Breillat film is something this critic never expected to do). Because of the energy of the central section despite the period language and clothes (when they rsquo;re on, that is), the other parts, in which the clothes permanently stay on and also feature elaborate speeches, feel even more stilted and could use a good trim.


What energises the film rsquo;s central section is the fact that Argento and Aattou make for a great couple, though in the novel Vellini is described as ugly and Argento rsquo;s only offence to aestheticism are her crooked teeth. Their cat and mouse games as they go from unknowns to passionate lovers to grieving parents and back wonderfully plays off the naturally sulphurous attitude of both. Argento is a feline here more than ever, though her verbose period French sometimes sounds awkward (and her Spanish is risible: Adios!

). Aattou rsquo;s intensity combines a heartfelt yearning with a physicality that makes his beating heart audible under his period clothes.

Though the idea of a costume drama from the director of Romance (which starred porn star Rocco Siffredi in his first sort of non-porn outing) might in itself be shocking, the film obliges its hardcore audience with scenes in which Argento and Aattou enjoy each other rsquo;s company without all the burdensome period garb on their backs, though the film rsquo;s most resonant scene is a small moment in which both are fully dressed and Argento, after an early morning in his bed, is returning home and is about to lock him inside his room.

She pretends to want to kiss him before quickly closing the door while Aattou rsquo;s face, still light-headed after all that love-making, remains floating in front of the door. He really wanted that kiss. And she knows how to keep her man hungry for more.

The aura of tension surrounding Aattou rsquo;s angelic face with that tenebrous, romantic look crowned with a mop of unruly black hair is really the heart of the film: a passion of an immeasurable appetite that can not last.

In France particularly, Une vieille ma tresse might suffer from its release so close on the heels of Rivette rsquo;s riveting Ne touchez pas la hache (Don rsquo;t Touch the Axe), which also featured a frustratingly passionate couple at its heart of which one of the two was married to someone else. This literary drama is even longer than Breillat rsquo;s film but knows how to sustain all the passion, suspense and sense of urgency that the non-flashback sections of Une vieille ma tresse so sorely lack.

This film was screened as part of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
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Keywords: La Vellini
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