Sex. Lust. Love. Passion. Intimacy. Hatred. It’s amazing how close all these are to one another. There often is a very fine line between things that may seem opposite. Sometimes they may be two sides of the same coin. The same things can be part of a healthy bond, or a destructive relationship. In The Last Mistress we watch love turn to hatred and passion shift from a sharing of intimacy to a weapon of fury. It is a period romance, but with a much different understanding of the fragility of love than most romances.
The story focuses on Ryno de Marigny, a young man known as a libertine, who is about to marry Hermangarde, the innocent and guileless granddaughter of the Marquise de Flers. Many in Paris find it odd that the Marquise would allow her granddaughter to be in such a match, but she believes that Ryno is ready to change his ways for the love of Hermangarde.
One night shortly before the wedding, the Marquise has Ryno convince her of his worthiness. She is especially concerned about his relationship with La Vellini, who has been his mistress for ten years. As the night goes on, he tells the Marquise about their history and relationship. It is a story of developing love, tragedy, and the way the relationship suddenly shifted from love to loathing. The passion they felt for one another had a new nature, but the only way they had to deal with that passion was through sex.
The wedding goes on. At the wedding, two scriptures are read. The first, Matthew 19:3-12, concerns divorce, adultery, and eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Viewers know that adultery is already present in this marriage. The second lesson, 1 Corinthians 11:3-9, concerns the veiling of women’s heads in worship and reflects the idea that man is superior to woman (because, it says, man reflects God’s glory and woman reflects man’s). As we hear the scripture, we see the veiled Hermangarde next to Ryno and wonder who is more likely to be reflective of God’s glory. These biblical texts give us a framework by which to judge the marriage, especially Ryno’s likelihood of failure to live up to these ideals.
Ryno and Hermangarde go off to the coast so that he will be away from his mistress and the destructive nature of their passion. But La Vellini is not done with him. She follows them to the coast. Will he remain faithful to the woman he now loves, or succumb to the temptation of the passion they share, even if it is unhealthy? Can Hermangarde maintain the bond with her husband, or will she too fall into the animosity that devours love?
The film walks a fine line between eroticism and pornography. The most explicit scenes really lose much of their eroticism because we can see that there is no love being played out in them, only wrath.
Visually, the film gives us plenty of clues to the nature of this relationship. In the first sex scene in the movie (and one of the tamer ones) Ryno and La Vellini have sex on a tiger rug. We know immediately that this is a raw animal passion being played out. Another sex scene, following the great tragedy in their lives, takes place in an empty, barren desert which reflects the emptiness of their own lives.
As we see their story play out, we note through the sex scenes the shift from being a mutual pleasure to being a mutual pain and cruelty. Sex in the love stage is done face to face but is later done with them in such a position that neither really sees the other. Even as they grow more and more apart, their passion drives them to take that which could be good and holy and make it hurtful and vicious.
Viewers may note that red is prominent in the film. La Vellini always has at least a bit of red clothing. (Hermangarde, on the other hand, is always dressed well, but in either pure white or in drab colors.) At times blood is the red that dominates the scene. There are two scenes that deal with a basin of blood. One scene is life giving; the other a symbol of death. Red is a reminder of the passion, but also of life and death. The passions between two people have the potential to give blessing to life or to be deadly to the soul.
This film isn’t about villains. It would be easy to cast Ryno and La Vellini in such a role, but like Hermangarde, they too are victims. Love and sexuality should always be understood to be gracious gifts from God. All too often such gifts can be misused and turned into something vile and depraved. In The Last Mistress, we see the damage that can be done when these gifts lose their luster.
