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Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Argento seizes each scene with both hands, adding surprising layers of feeling as she goes. Read more
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: It's characteristic of the virtues and limitations of French sexual provocateur Catherine Breillat...that they usually derive from the same source--the fearless determination to skirt the borders of camp. Read more
John Hartl, Seattle Times: [Breillat's] latest and possibly most entertaining exercise in erotica. Read more
Scott Tobias, AV Club: Though Argento's full-barreled performance hits some bum notes, her utter lack of reserve stands out as both reckless and courageous against the social rigors of Parisian high society. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Cool, carnal, and lethal, The Last Mistress is a period drama with a difference. Read more
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: [An] entertaining, elegantly shot adaptation of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly's 19th century novel. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Decorous to a fault, in the manner of middling Eric Rohmer talkfests, it's a film that could use some shaking up. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: There's a brittle pomp and circumstance to The Last Mistress, which suddenly turns into a sensual witch's dance, once star Asia Argento is let loose about a third of the way into the film. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The sumptuous costumes and florid dialogue in The Last Mistress represent early-19th-century French custom at its most curlicued, but the power of one woman's molten sexuality is timeless in Catherine Breillat's rich drama. Read more
Kamal Al-Solaylee, Globe and Mail: Despite an austere budget and some minor anachronisms, The Last Mistress proves that Breillat has found something in the luscious language of the 19th century that makes sense to us today. Read more
Richard Brody, New Yorker: The director Catherine Breillat's period adaptation of an 1851 novel by Barbey d'Aurevilly delivers sex and pain with style and conviction that render her familiar themes new again. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Though Argento and Aattou lack the searing chemistry needed, the social politics are consistently intriguing, and everything -- not to mention everyone -looks absolutely stunning. Read more
V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The most overtly sensual film to come our way of late. Read more
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: In The Last Mistress, the director Catherine Breillat's explorations of desire are so far from the antiseptic world of most screen depictions as to seem far out. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Ms. Breillat has forgone the anarchic force of her earlier forays into the still relatively underdeveloped realm of female sexuality. As a pioneer of sorts in her field, she has earned this temporary respite of classicism represented by The Last Mistress. Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Lush. Debauched. Ravishing. And did I mention sexy? The Last Mistress, from French controversialist Catherine Breillat, is Dangerous Liaisons, uncorseted and undressed. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The sex, like almost everything else in The Last Mistress, is mechanical. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is Claude Sarraute's performance that I love most of all in the film. I can easily imagine spending the night in the salon of this old lady, and telling her everything she wants to hear. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: As gorgeous-looking as the picture is, you could never accuse Breillat of anything so banal as good taste. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: [Breillat] is inviting us to really look at sex as it occurs in life, and to engage with it mentally, as a driving mystery of human existence. Read more
Susan Walker, Toronto Star: A costume drama with an emphasis on costume over drama. Read more
Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Swiftly and deftly immersing us in the fashions - not just the clothes and decor, but also the changing sexual and social ethics - of the 1830s, Breillat's meticulous, eloquent script and direction succeed in relating a consistently engrossing story. Read more
Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: Asia Argento, as Vellini, is a firebrand, a woman who is attractive even in non-seductive moments when she is angry or downcast or 'off-stage.' Read more
Lisa Nesselson, Variety: Adapting a book by semi-notorious novelist and critic Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808-89), Breillat freely stamps her strong and singular feminine insights on a man's material. Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Highly entertaining. Read more