Writer/director Catherine Breillat returns to cinemas this week with her first film in a decade, and what a return it is. Last Summer is so quintessentially French, so perfectly seductive, both literally and figuratively, that it almost makes such a long wait worth it. An intimate, surprisingly fierce family drama about an older woman who has an affair with her stepson, the film is an adaptation of 2019's Danish film Queen of Hearts. That simple logline might be enough to turn off many a prudish American film-goer, but it would be their loss. Starring Léa Drucker as Anne, a successful children's advocate raising two adopted school-age girls with her husband, Pierre (the great Olivier Rabourdin), Last Summer is not an endorsement of the depicted behavior at all; it's also not exactly an indictment, though, and living in that in-between, where we're forced to confront our own taboos and biases, is something Breillat revels in.
It's several scenes before we meet teenage Théo (Samuel Kircher), a lanky, aloof young man of 17 (the age of consent in France is 15) whose facial hair hasn't emerged yet. He's come to live with Pierre, Anne and the girls because his mother needs a break and Pierre wants to spend time with his son before it's too late. Anne's relationship to her stepson is distant at best, having not seen him in years and unsure of what impact his presence will have on their picturesque lives in the country. But she makes an effort to connect when he arrives, and soon the two have a reasonable, almost too-familiar rapport.
What happens next isn't a surprise; what is, is how Breillat navigates this delicate dynamic in ways that keep an audience engaged and curious about what happens next, rather than tuned out at the scandal of it all. For most of the film, Anne is dressed in all white, a deliberate choice and a fascinating one, visually challenging the viewer's assumptions of abusers. So, too, is it challenging to be aghast at the happenings as we see Anne serving as a warm and available mother to her daughters and a reliable and dedicated force for her clients. Is she really such a monster?
Breillat doesn't shy away from showing their physical interactions, one long shot on Anne's face in the throes of pleasure is quite stunning as we can't help but be conflicted about what we're witnessing. Soon, Théo's aloofness starts to fade as he inevitably gets caught up in the rush of the affair, an infatuated schoolboy who wants attention from the girl he likes. The implied jealously of his own father is expertly expressed in one looming scene where the teenager is observing his parents, unbeknownst to them. It all places us squarely in the middle of this tense balancing act, riveted to the screen to know how it will all unfold.
When it does, it is with a ferocity I, for one, was not expecting, taking this otherwise quiet but engaging film into a realm that is powerful and thought-provoking, as Anne has to think quickly to preserve some sense of control when shit inevitably hits the fan (I audibly gasped at the moment). The tense moments that follow, raised voices and trust broken, are the only appropriate third act to the film leading up to it, and Breillat sticks the landing beautifully. Last Summer is sun-drenched, sexy drama that nearly has us forgetting the reality of the situation until it demands to be reckoned with, at which point the film's true strengths come out: complicated, multi-layered characters navigating complicated, nuanced circumstances, and not always in the most upstanding ways. Breillat puts a mirror to our intricate humanity, and though she makes it lovely enough to look at, the reality is what's really worth observing.
Last Summer is now in theaters.
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