Last Summer

Catherine Breillat's story of forbidden love will slide under your skin.

Last Summer isn’t sexually explicit in the manner of some of Breillat’s earlier features, such as the 1999 Romance. All the same, it’s a provocation, as well as a gripping story.

That’s the character of the film as a whole: cataclysmic events taking place amid lovely, languid scenery and civil (or at least sophisticated) conversation.

“Last Summer” is a work of artfully sustained sexual suspense.

To be clear: Breillat isn’t justifying Anne’s affair or, on a larger scale, telling a story with any universal resonance. She’s exploring how this particular sinner did the unforgivable — and then committed even more sins trying to cover it up.

The narrative is too flat, too drily filmed by César-nominated cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie to induce much emotion or debate about Anne’s hypocrisy and abuse of power.

a cynical take on human relationships in general and sexual relations in particular

While Theo may feel just a boiled bunny away from Glenn Close’s Alex Forrest, such becomes his obsession, there’s also an authenticity about the central pair's chemistry that’s been missing from other older woman-younger man relationships this year.

Propelled by a committed cast, it's more thoughtful than salacious as it confronts moral complexities within realistically fractured family dynamics.

Léa Drucker is so good here as the woman with a perfect life who'd rather jump off the cliff than accidentally fall off it, as she puts it.