When I found out the Australian title of this movie was "The Old Mistress" I was a little pissed off and disappointed with Director Catherine Breillat. And I think at times, the movie was engrossing and provocative but should have been better. It’s a French period piece recounting the story of a 10 year relationship between Frenchman Ryno de Marigny (first timer Fu'ad Ait Aattou) and Vellini (Asia Argento), a somewhat vulgar, older Spanish woman. Their "romance" veers from obsessive, passionate, destructive and disgusting and eventually threatens his marriage to virginal (blonde) Hermandarde granddaughter to an aristocratic matriarch.
Much of the film unfolds in flashback as Ryno; the penniless nobleman must recount the story of his scandalous affair with Vellini to his future grandmother in law. She insists on hearing every lurid detail in part to explain to her their attraction and prove that it’s really over. And also because she's old and bored and want to have a juicy sex talk with a hot young man. The story drags in parts but there’s real chemistry between the leads, albeit in a very fucked up way. Overall the movie depressed me about relationships and when the story moved to the rocky French coastline, I thought someone should have stepped up and taken a flying leap and put and end to their destructive triad.