Last Summer (2023)

A brilliant & tense film, which showcases Breillat's continuing mastery of storytelling - Last Summer review by Timmy B

Anne (Drucker) is an extremely successful & brilliant lawyer who specialises in cases involving young people, whether it is access/rights for parents going through divorce, all the way up to more serious assault & child protection matters. She lives with her CEO husband Pierre and 2 adopted children in a gorgeous chalet in the middle of the French countryside, in exquisite luxury. Then Pierre announces that Theò, his estranged 17 year old son from a previous acrimonious relationship, is coming to live with them due to his extremely difficult behaviour & getting into trouble with the police. After initially disliking each other, Anne & Theò embark on a passionate affair, which threatens to be exposed, whilst Anne also deals with the previously buried trauma she has experienced.

After a long hiatus, Catherine Breillat has returned with this remake of the popular and critically acclaimed Danish film Queen of Hearts. But what will shock people who are familiar with her previous work is the lack of explicit sex & provocativeness that featured so heavily in films such as Romance, Brief Crossing and Fat Girl. In many ways, and I say this in no way critically, Breillat has made a film which is a conventional adult drama, which I never thought I'd see myself writing.

And, from what I have read on IMDb, Queen Of Hearts is an extremely provocative film which in no way shys away from explicit imagery. So I find the change of tone interesting, and slightly disappointing in one sense. I really enjoy films which are unafraid, irrelevant of the content, to push boundaries with their storytelling. And despite not loving a lot of Breillat's work (this is the highest rated of the films of hers I've seen so far,) I've always respected her fearless approach to provocative stories. There was a part of me that really wished this film was more bold in its depiction of the affair, simply because that is something Breillat does so well.

But I cannot lie, I really enjoyed this film. For a start, it looks absolutely gorgeous. All the previous films of Breillat's I've watched have had dreary, sometimes lifeless and washed-out cinematography. But this is a world away from those productions. The colours are vibrant, bold & rich; the sound design excellent and atmospheric; the locations picture-perfect.

The performances are also great, none more so than Léa Drucker's, an actress I have not watched before but who is extremely technically skilled. She effectively switches with ease between ice-cold and collected to struggling to hold together her emotions when remembering trauma from her past. Olivier Rabourdin, who is the face you have seen in multiple French films, plays Pierre with the energy of a man who has put his career above everything else and is desperately trying to salvage the life he threw away.

When it comes to Theò, I was a little bit more reserved. To play the role of the scheming, manipulative but also sexually liberated young man who breaks hearts is not easy. And whilst Samuel Kircher gave it his best and was effective in the early scenes, I felt he got more out of his depth the longer the story went on. By the end scenes, I just didn't feel that he was credible, although the script does also wrap things up extremely quickly & not particularly logically.

But despite this criticism, this is a really good adult drama which explores female sexuality, as well as how even an older woman with everything to lose can be seduced by a literally walking red flag. And as much as I wanted it to push the boundaries more, I was always absorbed with the drama on screen.