My Mistress Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

My Mistress Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 19, 2015

Screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival, Stephen Lance's directorial debut, "My Mistress" (2014), arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of German label Lighthouse Home Entertainment. There are no supplemental features on this release. In English or German, without optional subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

"You need three things: a freezing cold shower, a glass of whiskey, and an incantation."

Stephen Lance’s directorial debut is like a very long and occasionally very intense wet dream. For a while it feels great, but when it ends it seems awkward. It gets even more awkward if one tries to logically deconstruct it. But isn’t this the case with most dreams?

The film brings together two very different characters. The first is Charlie Boyd (Harrison Gilbertson, Need for Speed), a 16-year-old teenager who has just discovered the cold body of his father. He blames his mother, Kate (Rachael Blake, Lantana), for the collapse of the family, bur does not want to hear how she feels. It is too late now. All Charlie wants is to be alone so that he can deal with the pain.

The second character is Maggie (Emmanuelle Beart, L'enfer, La belle noiseuse), a French woman who has just moved in a large house on the outskirts of the town. Maggie is tall and elegant, a woman most men would love to be seen with, but she also prefers to be alone.

They meet in a small park. Charlie offers Maggie a cigarette and then they exchange a few words. He is intrigued, but she is only trying to be polite. Later on, Charlie secretly follows Maggie back to her house and makes a shocking discovery – she is a dominatrix with a solid clientele. Then while she is away from the house, he enters her dungeon.

Charlie keeps coming back to the house until Maggie hires him to clean the garden and the pool. Eventually, the two warm up to each other and Maggie even allows him to secretly observe a session with one of her regular clients. Then Charlie gets a taste of the sweet pain and becomes addicted to it.

The majority of the events in the film are seen through Charlie’s eyes. As he becomes emotionally attached to Maggie, he undergoes a massive character transformation that exposes his strengths and weaknesses. It is only then that one begins to understand why Maggie is alone and see different events from her point of view.

The bond between Charlie and Maggie -- which isn’t based on a touchy sexual attraction of some sort -- isn’t unrealistic. The casual foreplay, however, is slightly overdone. When Maggie finally allows Charlie to enter the darker world in which she meets her clients and he is forced to respect some its rules, there are exchanges and some role playing that look too secure. Had they been a bit more awkward or nervous, the entire film would have been a lot more effective.

Still, this is a very delicate film with very good performances from the two leads and wonderfully controlled ambient atmosphere. For a debut feature, it is also remarkably well directed.

My Mistress was lensed by cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson, who also collaborated with Julia Leigh on the equally atmospheric thriller Sleeping Beauty.

My Mistress Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Stephen Lance's My Mistress arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of German label Lighthouse Home Entertainment.

The high-definition transfer is encoded in 1080/50i, but it actually contains progressive frames. This means that there is absolutely no motion-judder whatsoever. To be clear, this is essentially a solid progressive transfer "locked" inside a 1080/50i encode.

The film was shot with the Arri Alexa camera and the majority of it looks very sharp. There is an abundance of natural light, but frequently it is somewhat subdued. As a result, occasionally depth can fluctuate a bit (see the indoor footage). Colors range from cool to cold, but remain natural throughout the entire film. There are absolutely no stability or transition issues. The encoding is good, but some extremely light compression artifacts almost sneak in. Also, during the closing credits I noticed some light trailing effects (they are not present during the film). To sum it all up, even though there is room for some improvements, this is a very good technical presentation of My Mistress. Prior to receiving the Blu-ray, I viewed the film on DVD and I can confirm that the gap in quality between the two is quite substantial. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free Blu-ray player in order to access its content).

My Mistress Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English or German subtitles have not been provided.

The film is complimented by a light ambient score that creates quite an atmosphere. Where the music becomes prominent, depth and clarity are absolutely terrific. Separation is also excellent, making it very easy to identify random sounds and noises. The dialog is crisp, stable, and exceptionally easy to follow. There are no audio dropouts or distortions.

My Mistress Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this release.

My Mistress Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Australian filmmaker Stephen Lance's directorial debut, My Mistress, is about two people desperately trying to restore balance in their lives. It exudes hypnotic melancholy that very much reminds of Julia Leigh's first feature film, Sleeping Beauty, but this isn't too surprising as they were both lensed by cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson. Currently, the only Blu-ray release of My Mistress appears to be in Germany. In the United States, the film was released only on DVD. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.