Paris, 1835. The Marquise de Flers is about to marry her granddaughter and jewel of the aristocracy, Hermangarde, to the debauched Ryno de Marigny. However, he has had a mistress, La Vellini, for over ten years— and she’s a scandalous and possessive courtesan who is not ready to let him go.

Not your typical period piece, Catherine Breillat’s adaptation of a 19th-century novel unlaces the corset on erotic tension to create a costume drama that is explicitly sexy. Sharing the screen with gilded, florid detail, flesh becomes baroque in and of itself in this subversively lavish film.