Mephistos

The Last Mistress

By Ray on September 28th, 2008

It has been a while since I have done one of these, but just as I occasionally comment on some music I also occasionally comment on a movie (I have about a dozen of these, both music and movies to post yet). I did however just see a new movie at the Kentucky Theatre over the weekend. By the way, if you have not seen a movie at the Kentucky, you should make a plan to do so – it was restored some time back around 1987-88 to its splendor as 1930-40′s theatre. They run a mixture of art films, popular movies, cult classics on the weekends, along with the occasional other oddity mixed in here and there. In addition they have the Woodsongs television show filmed on location and occasionally other concerts are held in the venue. One of my favorite Wednesday afternoon about sixteen or seventeen years ago was seeing Dr. Zhivago on the big screen. This one is a French film with sub-titles. I was interested in it because it was set in the 1830′s in France, such a lovely time period for some nice historical costumes. And I have never minded films with sub-titles, especially if it qualifies as a costume drama.

The story itself was tolerable though the ending was kind of let down. Without saying too much, it worked itself along and basically ended up almost where it started and was very predictable about getting there in a general sense. It did have, as one would expect with it be French in nature, just enough sexually explicit material to keep one interested through the dryer scenes of the movie otherwise.

Moving on to the costuming and historical setting, which is what really had me interested in seeing it, well, the jury is still out. Though I am personally leaning toward a guilty verdict. The costuming was very lovely and scenery was promising. However, there was some doubts in regards to the costuming on occasion in my mind. I was especially questioning the costuming that the Spanish mistress wore, especially when being the seductions that she was on several occasions throughout the movie. I think that there was just a little bit to much of the modern influence of seduction with some of her costumes and have doubts about several parts being authentic to the period.

There were a few other anachronistic problems, notably the inclusion of a one scene where the mistress is doing something coming out the bed and you can see her very modern tatoo on her lower back (guess that fits her role given what those tattoos are typically called, but I don’t think it was correctly used as identifier in the 1830′s). Another major problem was the writing of a letter by one of the characters, using a quill and inkwell. That is not out of line, however, the immediate folding of the letter with drying the ink or any other means of ensuring it would smear while still wet was just too much to believe.

All of these problems really cast doubt on the rest of the scenery and really brings the whole movie down more a few notches. It however actually gets worse. Myself and one of the two people who I saw it with were questioning the title of the movie in English. As we questioned so much and how it really did not fit the actual movie, we decided to look it up. Indeed, the translation is probably closer to The City/Town Mistress, instead of The Last Mistress. This of course just added to the doubts I had about any historical accuracy, though I am sure the company that released it in the states had very little to do with the actual production of the movie in France.

One last note, the friend I saw it with is almost certain that she has seen it on her satellite equipped television before. And further investigation indicates it was released in france in 2007, which means there has been more than enough time for it to have aired on one of the foreign film networks available. It almost makes me wish I had my money back and would be doing so if it had not been good company in an environment that I generally enjoy otherwise.