The Last Mistress on Blu

Another Breillat film has secured an English-friendly HD release!  This time it's The Last Mistress on blu-ray from IFC Films, as a part of the Vinegar Syndromes partner label series.  This is also its first release in the United States except for the rare Blockbuster-exclusive DVD from 2007.  It follows a French language-only release that came out last year from Le chat qui fume.  You may remember me pointing out their release of Anatomy of Hell last year.  It turns out they're putting out whole bunch of  Breillat films on blu, including A Real Young Girl, Fat Girl, 36 Fillet, Bluebeard, Romance, Sleeping Beauty, and Abuse of Weakness.  Now again, those do not include any English language options at all; but it shows HD masters are available for all these films, so there's hope of new English-friendly releases in future.  A couple of 'em already have as good or better discs out there, but most of these are still DVD only titles in English and would be extremely welcome follow-ups to this Last Mistress blu.  Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, let's put aside all those birds in the bush and look at the one we have in hand.  I've matched screenshots with the 2008 UK DVD from Artificial Eye so we can see the differences:

2008 DVD on top; 2026 BD below.

Both discs are framed at 1.86:1 and look to be using the same root master.  Nothing on the new blu mentions any kind of new scan, and neither did the French disc, all suggesting this is an old ass master.  But the jump to HD is still a cleaner boost in clarity.  We see more fine detail (zoom in on Asia's face in the shots above, and it's obvious).  So while it fails to capture any of the natural film grain like a modern 4k, or even 2k, scan would, it's still a satisfying upgrade.  The 5.1 audio has also been boosted to a lossless DTS-HD track.

Surprisingly, though, while the English subtitles are removable on the DVD, as they almost always are, they're not on the blu-ray.  There is an On/ Off option in the BD menu, but it does nothing.  The subs aren't just forced; they're burnt into the raw video file on the disc.  ...I expect this was an error.

In happier news, this is quite the special edition.  First of all, the back of the case ad online listings don't mention it, but this blu-ray includes all the great extras from the AE DVD: Catherine Breillat's interview, the deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer.  Then, even more excitingly, they've cooked up a bunch of new stuff.  There's an expert audio commentary by Elena Lazic, which is quite good, with a lot of good info about the original novel and making of the film.  There's also a short video essay by Alexandra Heller Nicholas, which is okay.  It feels like a short addendum to the commentary.  Best of all, is a new video interview with Asia Argento who is surprisingly candid about her experience on this movie.  This release also includes a booklet by Beatrice Loayza, reversible artwork, and if you ordered the limited first pressing, a slipcover.

So yeah, good times.  Let's hope this is the first of many.