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Last Summer

Chaos and order in Catherine Breillat’s cinema
Potential Films
by
ABR Arts 02 September 2024

Last Summer

Chaos and order in Catherine Breillat’s cinema
Potential Films
by
ABR Arts 02 September 2024
Léa Drucker as Anne and Olivier Rabourdin as Pierre (courtesy of Potential Films)
Léa Drucker as Anne and Olivier Rabourdin as Pierre (courtesy of Potential Films)

Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer is a remake of a 2019 Danish film called Queen of Hearts, May el-Toukhy’s feature about a woman who embarks on a sexual relationship with her teenage stepson. This adaptation follows the original closely, down to specific scenes and lines of dialogue. Yet it is a Breillat work in every conceivable way, a challenging, sometimes ecstatic engagement with desire, sex, shame, and power that manages to be strikingly different in tone, emphasis, and conclusion from its source.