Film review: Another week, another French film about an ostensibly happily married woman embarking on a torrid affair.
But whereas the recent Iris and the Men treated its heroine’s dalliances as a fantasy of self-discovery, Last Summer takes a much more dramatic, and damaging, angle as middle-aged criminal lawyer Anne jeopardises her family and career by sleeping with her husband’s teenage son.
Director Catherine Breillat is notorious for creating an oeuvre of explicitly sexual, and sometimes violent, female-centric films. Romance, in 1999, and the subsequent Anatomy of Hell involved unsimulated sex, rape and bondage – so one might well be wary of the film-maker’s latest provocation.
Thankfully, though the 76-year-old still has a predilection for taboo subjects, it seems she has softened somewhat over the years. While Last Summer – a remake of 2019 Danish film Queen of Hearts – is shocking in its premise (it takes a May-December relationship to the extreme in terms of age gap though doesn’t technically steer into incest), the fine performances and relative restraint render it a mostly palatable and thoughtful story.
Léa Drucker (Close) plays Anne, who is initially irritated when her older husband’s son from his previous marriage moves into their happy world. Theo (accomplished newcomer Samuel Kircher) is as arrogant and slovenly as a 17-year-old boy can be, and though he’s sweet to his little half sisters, there is nothing to indicate a right-thinking professional woman could possibly find him attractive. It says something about the strength of Breillat’s script that as Anne and Theo develop a newfound closeness, it doesn’t feel ridiculous or unbelievable when this connection turns to illicit passion.
The subject matter may jar and there are squeamish moments but this drama is well-developed and powerful in its telling.
Breillat employs long-held, one-angle takes to give her actors plenty of time and space to deliver excellent, natural performances. She doesn’t shy away from the sex, but these sequences are indicative rather than explicit; one quiet moment between husband and wife is the most real and moving sex scene I’ve seen in years.
As with all stories about clandestine relationships, the tension around who might find out makes this a nerve-wracking watch. It’s a credit to Breillat that despite her less-than-likeable characters doing unsympathetic things, Last Summer is gripping to the end.
Rating out of five: ★★★★
Last Summer, directed by Catherine Breillat, is out now.
