Ah, the female orgasm: A complex physical reaction that is constructed sexually and socially by the female sex, and rarely understood by men.
It also serves as the muse for controversial French filmmaker Catherine Breillat.
In all fairness, Breillat is dubbed controversial because her films deal with female sexuality and each definitive aspect of this wholly multifaceted topic.
If Breillat focused on more mundane genres, such as horror, she would not have received such a scandalous reputation. Breillat clearly believes that women are defined by their sexuality and their expression of it. She also expects her audience to understand this as well.
Her latest film, "The Last Mistress," is no different from her previous works in terms of exploring and examining sexuality. The lead man, Ryno de Marigny played by Fu'ad Ait Aattou has androgynous features, while his mistress Vellini (Asia Argento) is 10 years his senior and has sadistic tendencies.
The film focuses on the unhealthy relationship between these two self-destructive lovers who know that they are dangerous to those around them and to themselves, and how they forcibly persist on being explicitly intimate.
"The Last Mistress" has a lot of sex, not in the erotic context, but in a very dark sense. But sex is portrayed as the apparatus to the emotional slant that the two lovers inhibit - it's not meant to arouse the audience.
The two lovers are on a sexual hedonistic journey, not for love, but for something deeper and darker: primal need.
Breillat doesn't spoon feed the audience to have a one-sided opinion. Instead she flirts with our preconceived notions of right and wrong, and by the end, forces the audience to come up with its own interpretations.
Unfortunately, the film falls short on several aspects, one of which includes the acting.
The characters Breillat has created are multi-dimensional and complex. These are the type of characters that need more than a few shuffles of movement. The acting isn't bad per se; it's just not up to par with the script, and what Breillat wants to show-which is how pleasure, love, hate and sex can be unhealthy, perverse and provocatively destructive.
The film also falls short on the narrative flow, which can be distracting.
Nevertheless, the film tiptoes on the topic of human sexuality and raises questions on the animalistic attributes of human emotions.
Unfortunately, the painting was too big for the canvas for it to have that orgasmic effect.
Grade: C Directed by: Catherine Breillat Distributed by: IFC Films
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