Synopsis
One summer, a French teenager who has been living with his mother in the city moves in with his estranged father’s family in the countryside, where he clashes with his stepmother.
One summer, a French teenager who has been living with his mother in the city moves in with his estranged father’s family in the countryside, where he clashes with his stepmother.
Poslednje leto, Geçen Yaz, Lazos prohibidos, 殘夏, 去年夏天, Минулого літа, Минуле літо, 라스트 썸머, Ancora un'estate, En sommar, Im letzten Sommer, Verão Passado, Culpa e Desejo, Запретная страсть, Viime kesänä, El último verano, L'últim estiu, Ostatnie lato, Praeitą vasarą, Utolsó nyár, הקיץ האחרון, Vara trecută, あやまち, Pagājušovasar
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
French ephebophilia movies haven't been as thick on the ground on the festival circuit as they used to be, but we can always count on Catherine Breillat. Her latest — about an affair between a middle-aged woman and a teenage stepson — is one of her best.
Like many of Breillat's female protagonists, the teenage boy Théo is just old enough to know that he has sexuality and feel its power, but too young to know how to wield it responsibly. There is a certain chemistry between him and his stepmother Anne, at least for a brief while, but it's not really a "love" chemistry. All but abandoned by his father for most of his life, Théo clearly gets off…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
That moment when you're in the theater to see a French erotic drama and it turns out that your parents are there to see the exact same movie..
There's nothing like watching a 17 year old boy go down on his stepmom while you're sitting next to your parents.
Catherine Breillat.. bringing families closer together. ♥️
Nothing in this sick, sad world is simpler or more complicated than sex, a principle that helps to explain why the ever-provocative Catherine Breillat — whose films so often consecrate female desire by rendering it violently indefinable — was drawn to remake a 2019 Danish movie about a middle-aged lawyer who dedicates her life to defending young rape victims, only to begin a torrid affair with her own 17-year-old stepson.
May el-Toukhy’s “Queen of Hearts” spun that stark hypocrisy into a melodrama ridden with shame and secret darkness. Breillat’s “Last Summer” is much lighter in every way, and all the more revealing as a result; it leverages the same premise into a rich exploration of the inadequate judgment such a…
I will start this review with honesty: I am not a fan of Catherine Breillat’s work. Lord knows I’ve tried. Most recently I watched Anatomy of Hell (which I never logged) and her take on Bluebeard (read my Letterboxd review of it here)— I hated the former and found the latter utterly lacking in the frisson and complication of the fairytale. In theory I appreciate a female director on her provocateur shit — utterly exploding the boundaries that Western cultures adhere to or at least pretend to respect. Every taboo, every unnerving truth is up for scrutiny. But in practice I find her work grating and her provocation a cover for threadbare thinking and noxious beliefs. I can’t help but think…
I’ve already seen this.. and no I don’t mean as porn. I literally saw this movie in 2019.
Impressive frontal. Power and resentment as filtered through desire, sex as this excuse to consistently reacting against a terrible environment and displacing even more hurt. Great Decker performance. Current film culture could probably use more auteurs taking assignments like this.