Catherine Breillat's The Last Mistress

“I am eternally, devastatingly romantic, and I thought people would see it, because ‘romantic’ doesn’t mean ‘sugary’. It’s dark and tormented--the furor of passion, the despair of an idealism that you can’t attain.” (Tsai) ,” said French film-maker, Catherine Breillat, as she reflect on the motivation to adapt the romantic novel The Last Mistress. There is often a huge misconception to the meaning of Romanticism; people often overlook the gut wrenching songs played on emotion and irrational fears and focus on the over extravagant intakes on love. Romanticism is a large movement that flourished during the eighteenth century as a counter culture to the older movement of Classicism. The innovative movement of Romanticism grasp emotion, imagination, …show more content…
“For starters, they're a sinister catch-all who can symbolize everything from sex fantasies to escapism from swine flu worries to darker social issues” (Alexander). Since the nineteenth century, vampires have been portrayed as hypersexual beings. Vampire women are often skinny, pale, and seductive and men are muscular, pale, and very attractive. Victorian women lived in a controlled environment that urged them to repress their sexuality. Just thinking of another man was a sin. In fact, Victorian women actively read vampire literature as it gave them freedom to fantasize since vampires were not human characters . However, according to my research log, there is a dark culture of sex that lurks around vampires. It is believed that there are evil vampires that abuse their powers by the device of their sexy appearances; many vampire experts believe “once a relationship is established they do everything they can to cement the bond. They pick a person who is vulnerable…” (Nightpoe) and take advantage of them. Being an attractive, will make a vampire seem more approachable, which aids in them capturing their victims. In The Bride of Corinth, a young man has sex with a vampire. Towards the end of the story, he is killed as she drinks his blood. The vampire states “still to love the bridegroom I have lost, and the life-blood of his heart to drink” (Wolfgang 5). The story proves how relevant a fatal attraction can occur when a person embarks on romance and sex with a vampire. Vampires use their looks as a tool of deception to objectify mortals and to get anything they want. For instance, Jonathan Harker experiences compelling sexual desires in Bram Stroker’s Dracula, when he sees three vampire ladies in Count Dracula’s castle. Jonathan mentioned “there [is] something about them that [makes] me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some